Week 6- Finances

Well, this is it…our last week together…for now. I am so glad that you all signed up and that we have all stuck with it. I am so encouraged to see the changes that are happening in marriages and the level of responsibility within our relationships has gone up a notch. I hope that everyone will continue to allow the Lord to grow you up and be the best wife/husband and/or mother/father that He desires us to be.
Last week we discussed finances. We talked about ideas that could help us to manage our money more efficiently like the envelope idea, of putting your grocery, gas, entertainment money in envelopes and once it is gone…it is gone…You can borrow from another envelope such as entertainment for your gas, but for that week…no movie. We also learned about budgeting and Ashley shared with us about a spreadsheet she uses to calculate everything for the month, which maybe she will forward it on to us. Jimmy Evans has said that if you budget and come to agreement about how much to spend on what categories, then it can help resolve further discussions about un-discussed purchases. We also learned from John and Suzanne that we should pay our bills first. We should pay the bills and then whatever money is leftover is for grocery, gas, etc. Also, we should write out our tithes immediately before anything else is deducted so we never fail to give to God what is already His, which brings me to the next principle we learned.
Our money is not ours…it’s God’s. He gave it to us, and He can take it away. We need to strive to be good stewards over our money and honor Him with our purchases and our attitudes toward our money. I have heard before and Max reiterated the point that God wants to give so we will give. He wants the money to just flow through us to do His work. Sure we can pay our bills and provide for our family, but when we find someone in need (which isn’t very hard), or the Lord places it on our hearts to give above our tithes and offerings, we need to be willing to obey Him. He who gives generously will reap generously. (2 Corinthians 9:6) and Proverbs 22:9 says “he who is generous will be blessed.”
Max also brought up the power of compound interest. (I am by no means and expert in this area.) If we invest our money in successful vehicles of return, we will reap a reward later. Just as your credit card purchase of $1000 would take 16 years to pay off if you were just paying a minimum of 2% because of the compounding interest. So, your $1000 would at least double. (Don’t know what the exact figure is.) Your money gain will function the same way. Even though the market is very uneasy right now, as long as the Lord tarries and the market recovers, this will allow our money to grow again. Patience is the key with investing.