Stuck in Old Money Stories? Ready for a Growth Mindset?

Have you ever caught yourself saying, I'm just bad with money. I always mess this up. I'm never going to figure this out. You're not alone. A lot of people carry those same thoughts.But here's a truth we don't always say out loud. Fixed thinking freezes progress. And what you speak over yourself often becomes the ceiling you live under. But listen to this. God renews minds.And when your thinking shifts, your habits shift, your decisions shift, your outcomes shift, you're not stuck. You're just repeating an old story that God is ready to rewrite. Welcome back, friends.My name is Ralph, and if this is your first time, I am so glad you're here.This is financially confident Christian where faith meets wisdom, where hope replaces shame, and where God's renewing work touches every part of your financial life. Today we're going deeper than budgets and bills and banking.We're talking about the stories you tell yourself about money and how God wants to transform them. A listener wrote this. Ralph, I say things like, I'm just bad with money. I feel stuck in the same patterns.How do I actually change how I think about money? What a great question. And friend. That's honest. That's vulnerability. And it's incredibly common.You would not believe how many people send me that same question. Because long before money is ever going to change, our mindsets change. So let's speak to what this is really going on here. This isn't about numbers.It's about identity. Here's what's true. You're not bad with money. You're just tired of being shamed. You're not incapable. You're just inexperienced. And you're not stuck.You're simple, repeating a story that no longer serves you. But here's the promise for today. God is ready to renew your mind from the inside out. So let's get practical for a moment.Because this isn't just emotional. There's research behind what I'm going to say about today. Study after study confirms a growth mindset. I'm talking about understanding.Growth creates better learning. It creates better and greater resilience, and it leads to real habit change. I love the simple truth, and I want you to embrace this today.Failures are lessons, not labels. You don't need perfection. You just need permission to grow. And let me tell you right now, Christ has already given you that permission.So let me share my own journey, because this is something I've lived. Also, I've watched countless clients rewrite their internal money stories, and I've watched the results change. Right before their eyes.And I've had to rewrite my own stories. I felt that I'm overwhelmed state. I felt that I can't learn this. And truth be told, I felt I'll never get ahead.But every time the story changed, the steps changed. And I want to encourage you right now, God can do the same for you. Let me give you a real example. Something simple but powerful.A listener once told me she felt hopeless about money. She wrote down a new belief. She said, ralph, here's what I'm going to write down. I'm going to take what you said. I can learn this.That was it, just one sentence. Then she began a weekly money hour, she called it, where every hour, weekly.She reviewed her accounts, she updated the categories, she started forecasting her next steps. She wasn't confident at first. A lot of this was mind games with herself. But she sure was consistent.And a couple months later, she was forecasting like a pro. Now, none of this happened because she suddenly became gifted. Because she stopped calling herself incapable. Because your story matters.So how do you change the story? Here's how you start by doing it. Number one thing, you got to identify the lie. You got to go and look at that. I can't statement.The biggest obstacles are usually the thoughts we never say out loud. It's that self talk. They sound like this, I'm bad with money, Ralph. I always mess this up. I'm just not a numbers person.That's the lies that we tell ourselves. But here's the gentle truth. You can't defeat what you won't acknowledge. So when you name that lie, guess what it does? It removes its authority.Once you remove the authority, replace it with truth. I'm going to call this scripture in skill. Scripture has the capacity to rewrite our identity. And that practice builds confidence.Let me give an example. Maybe a lie you hear is, I can't learn this. I've been in that same lie before. But what's God's truth say?Look at Romans 12 to we'll cover this today in our scripture. God renews my mind and we add to that the skill I can learn in small steps. That truth has to be repeated until it becomes familiar.That consistency and that truth leads to action and that action reinforces truth. Well, how do you do it, Ralph? Practice small weekly reps. Growth is never going to be on intensity. It's built on repetition.I'll give you a great example. I was down in the gym this morning. Now, I could have went down there and lifted one heavy weight. One Time.And I would have gotten zero growth from that. But what I've learned over the last 10 months of doing weightlifting exercise is that repetition, that continuous.And I can see myself getting stronger every week. Weekly money hour that my client did becomes a training time. It becomes a training time for your financial mind.And that consistency beats motivation every day because you will grow tired and you will lose your motivation. But if you can be consistent, if you can have those reps, it's going to beat back that fear. Those small reps create big results.And finally listen to me track your progress, not perfection. Don't judge yourself by one day. There are days when I'm trying to lose weight and I'm really doing good at it.But man, there are days that are setback days. And if I just judged myself on that one day, man, I would just stop. I would give up. So don't do that. Watch your trend line. Celebrate the micro wins.We talked about this a couple days ago. The those micro wins might be one bill paid on time, one week attracting one balanced category in your budget.But you got to realize growth is messy the day in and the day out. The hour by hour things are messy. But that movement you're putting together is beautiful.And that progress is going to build confidence and that confidence is going to build momentum. Well, let's root this in scripture because the mindset work is deeply biblical.As we spoke about earlier, Romans 12:2 says, Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformation isn't instant. A lot of people think, well if something magic is going to happen, I'm going to be transformed. It's not instant.It's a process, it's a journey. It's a daily decision. It's a daily renewal. God grows you step by step. How about we pray together right now? Lord, renew my thinking.Give me courage to learn. Even when it feels slow, even when it feels like I'm not getting anywhere. Lord, help me be patient as you grow me step by step, Lord.And show me the sign for that. Show me how to do that, Lord. And I ask this in the confidence in Jesus name, Amen. So here's your one action step for today.I want you to just write down one financial lie you believed. We've talked about a lot of those today. I can't do this. I'm not a numbers person. I'm not good at this.Ralph, just write that one financial lie that you've believed. Maybe you believe this your entire life. Maybe this came from your parents belief. Just write it down. Show its face.And then I want you to go find the scripture truth replacing it. And once you do that, I love what my clients do in here. Schedule your weekly money hour. Pick a day, a time of practice, and just do it.Because that rhythm becomes the beginning of your transformation. No, it's not going to happen overnight. But with that consistency with doing those reps, it will happen.And the beauty of that will be astonishing to you. And if you're like most people, you need support, you need encouragement, you need people who celebrate every step.I want to encourage you to join us inside the financially confident Christian community. You get to that by going to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/join again.That's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/Join because you don't have to do this alone. Friend, I want to say something right now. You're not stuck. You are growing.Your story can change, your habits can change, your mindset can change because God is renewing you from the inside out. So I want to encourage today, go out there and be the financially confident Christian that I know you can be. Have some confidence in yourself.I know you can do this. Stay financially savvy. God bless you. And you have a great day today.