Debt and FPU

Last week we joined a financial class at our church -- an 8 week Sunday 9AM morning class that promises to give us the tools to financial freedom.
The trend for being debt-free is on the rise, especially in churches, who have offered multiple classes over the last few years that boast "be debt free in one year." The invitation is appealing.
Debt is everywhere. I got my first credit card when I was 18 and at the age of 23 had to consolidate due to too many payments that I couldn't make. At 23, I had a personal loan for the amount of $8,000 to pay off all my credit cards. Since then I have paid off that loan, but now my wife and I have a Discover card that has about $800 on it. Not too bad, you say? Well American debt is on the rise. The struggling economy has called for desperate measures. It's not uncommon for me to be told that someone had to put groceries on a credit card just to be able to eat for the next week.
I hate hearing that, but I think there are two sides to every coin. As Americans we have become conditioned to think that we have to have more and that bigger is better. A smaller house isn't nearly as appealing as a larger home. We have become the most materialistic (and obese, but don't get me started on that) country. We think that we should have the right to have certain things: nice houses, brand new cars, new things, new computers, nice iphones, mp3 players, season passes to Six Flags, etc. The reality is here and is a slap on the face: while all those things are nice, they aren't what brings substance to life. We aren't entitled to everything that we think we are. You think if you work hard you should be able to "indulge" and buy those nice things. Most of us really can't "buy" anything. We are able to get "credit" to be loaned money to have these things. It's a false sense of reality. We don't own anything in our lives.
My wife and I started the David Ramsy plan half-way back when she was pregnant with our now 18month-old daughter. At that time we were bringing home almost $4,000 month and had NO savings or NO retirement or anything to show for it. We didn't even have two car payments, my wife's car was paid for so we were only paying $300.00 month for my car. Our house payment is $600. And yet, time and time again we were always short at the end of the month. Once we budgeted and started our savings plan we were able to put away one of my wife's full paychecks into our savings and we paid off some minor debt. We had almost $10,000 in savings when our daughter was born and after she was born padded it to another few thousand. Things have changed a lot since the recent events of my wife's pregnancy and having to pay $6,000 to Freeman for a basic birth and hospital stay. We also have to pay entirely for my wife's maternity leave. But our goal is still the same.
As we continue with this class we know that our priorities have shifted slightly, but we still want to be debt free (aside from our house) withine two years. We both have 8 year old vehicles. We go to garage sales and we rarely eat out. But we take long bike rides, go to the park, and spend time together as a family which is worth far more than material things can give us.