Thankful Thursdays *Making decissions*

Talked with a Realtor last night. Then a long distance phone call came in ... then Beloved had a Mens meeting to go to and had to leave shortly after that. We never really got a chance to talk. This morning we spoke very little before he had to be off for work. This evening we are going to get together to crunch numbers to gain data and then do our pro/con work sheet.
We have many variables.

This is how Mr Uncommon and I make difficult choices.

After we have prayed about it we then to a pro con sheet with all the data collected and varied counsel. Counsel will always come with a bias. (ie the Realtor wants in your pocket too.) Everyone wants in your pocket bear that in mind. Although a workman is worthy of a wage just remember that some will be trickier and greedier than others.
The seller will always say "it is good" and the buyer will always say "it is worth less". There is even a proverb about this.
We have data to collect and will use a mortgage calculator to do so. We will determine some of the Pros and Cons that is costs and gains.
We will then list three options. A column for Pro and one for Cons (costs and gains). We will print out the data and collect a varied counsel. There is wisdom in a multitude of counsel. Varied by bias, knowing what the bias of your counsel is will help you to seek motive if any.
For every decision to make there will always be benefits and costs.
But are the benefits worth the costs, what are you willing to give to gain? That is the place where free will comes in. When choices are made in this fashion the Cons are the loss that one is willing to sacrifice and when it gets hard you know why you chose what you chose. Your YES can be YES and you NO can be NO. You remove the double mindedness.
We have found out some disturbing news and have to look at that. We will have to take out a small mortgage to afford a starter house and the amount has an enforced minimum higher than what we wanted to do. (mortgages must be no lower than 60k, and with that the interest rate is above prime. If you take out a Home Equity line of credit then you have a much higher interest rate. ) If you want prime interest rates you have to borrow 100k or more that make 30 years of high payments even if you pay it off sooner the payment remains high just for a shorter time frame.
Con for us is that with a higher payment even though we would pay it off much faster we would not have the $ to fix it up or to do the travel that we desired to do while the kids are young. Tricky stuff!
Then as the final determining factor we... "let the peace of Christ be the final determining factor in what so ever we say or do." That is an agreed upon peace where we each will go before God and do nothing unless we agree or at worst I will defer as spouse and trust in Gods covering. Not fewer than once in our 25+ year marriage I have witnessed Gods intervention even at this point. Visa versa as well if I have felt VERY strongly "The MR." has deferred, and if I was wrong God intervened too. Sometimes Gods intervention was in way of a hard lesson but one that needed to be learned.
You know,... I learned the Pro/Con process form Mr Uncommon a few years into our marriage because I would just lock up or like most people do "toss a coin" (so to speak) or look for signs and then think "I must not of heard from God" or if it went well think "I must of heard from God" (Pride or opposite,... still pride). Well I think when I was a babe there was a lot of grace but now as I am no longer a babe mature methods must be used. They are a lot less spooky too :)