- [Narrator] Former U.S.Marine Aaron Littles

met his wife Madeline in the DC area.

- I'm literally the girl next door.

- I see her after a workout

you know, I was like,Hey, what's going on?

And she's like, "Who are you?"

- [Narrator] Aaron didn't give up.

And soon the two weretalking marriage and money.

Madeline was worried becauseshe was $90,000 in debt.

- I was the picture ofthe consumer lifestyle.

And I remember printingout my bank statements

and my pile of debts, studentloans and credit card debts,

and thinking, this might bethe end of the relationship

before it even gets off the ground.

- [Narrator] She didn't know that Aaron

was $15,000 in the red himself

from some rental property expenses.

Still, he was confident

that the two could tackletheir debt together.

- My mentality was we can get married,

we can buy a boat. we canlive on the water, no rent.

And so now we're able to payoff all this debt quicker.

And I said, we'll sell your car

and literally eat beans and rice.

And we'll be done in nine months.

- I threw my ring at him andI stormed out like a child.

You know, I had accidentallyfallen into this debt.

And so I thought maybe I could just

accidentally stumble out of it,

but you can't stumble outof a hole that's that deep.

- [Narrator] Aaron had been listening

to some biblical teachingon money and debt,

and shared what he waslearning with Madeline.

Then during their engagement,

the two took a financialplanning class at church.

It wasn't easy for Madeline,

but she cut back on eatingout and buying things.

As Aaron transitioned out of the Marines

and into a civilian position,

as a project manager at a large bank,

the couple diligently stuck to a budget.

The savings from that

along with gift money from their wedding,

helped them to pay down $35,000

within the first year of marriage,

but they still had 70,000 to go.

- So I was thinking,how do we ramp this up?

How do we get our debtknocked out even quicker?

- [Narrator] When they revisited

their money management class,

they realized what was missing.

- During the first yearwe weren't tithing.

We decided at that point not to do it.

It felt overwhelming

because that seemed likea lot of money to give

when I already didn't have a lot to spare.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, theyreceived a challenge at church.

- The pastor was actuallydoing a whole series

on tithing and giving, andhe kind of dared everyone

to say, well, what'sthe worst that happens?

You can just tithe fora month or two months

and see what happens.

So we did that.

And I think it was amentality shift spiritually

to say we're gonna trust in God.

- And I think at that pointis when the fear of tithing

subsided or it was overcome by my faith.

This wasn't just my money or my stuff.

This was something the Lord hadgiven to me and I needed to,

instead of clenching ittightly with my fist,

I needed to open my palm,

so that the tithes were thefirst thing that came out

and I gave back to God the first fruits

of everything that he had blessed us with.

Aaron had opened an eventplanning business on the side

to make extra money shortlyafter he and Madeline married.

But it had been slow going.

After starting to tithe,that suddenly changed.

- We got some big contracts with weddings,

got a big contract witha nonprofit company

that we were able to help.

So that's where I haveto attribute so much

to our being faithful anddiligent with our tithe,

that the Lord honored that.

- [Narrator] Aaron also got some increases

in his project manager salary,

and soon the rest of the Littles' debt

was completely paid off.

- It was definitely freeing.

It was like, just feel

like you're climbinga mountain, literally.

Ah, I can breathe now.

And that burden's off.

- It was so eye-opening to me.

I can trust God to provideeverything that we need.

- [Narrator] With no more debt

and great money comingin from his main job,

Aaron no longer needed extra income.

So he closed his event planning business.

Meanwhile, Madeline left her job

to homeschool the couple's two daughters

and tutor other children.

Today, Aaron is thechief operating officer

of a healthcare company.

And as the Littles havecontinued to tithe and give,

their financial situationhas gotten better and better.

- We've got college fundsstarted for the kids.

We have an emergency fund for ourselves.

We have retirement accounts going.

- Now we want to make sure

that we're supporting otherthings that are important to us

and helping grow the kingdom of God.

- [Narrator] The couple encourage others

who want financial freedomto shift their focus

from how they're goingto pay off their debt,

to what they can give to God instead.

- Make sure that you are growingin wanting to be generous

and being cheerful wheneveran opportunity comes to give.

It's just being faithful and living out

the principles of the Bible.

- It changes you, it changesthe way that you view money,

it changes the way that youview the blessings that you have

and it allows you tosee that it's not yours.

It's His.