Where are you going?

Hello gentle reader,

I have been pondering why in these days when we have so much information available to us why there are so many people who struggle with financial affairs. It should just be a matter of math, right? At its core, financial management begins with spending less than you make. To balance the equation, you can either increase income or decrease spending. It seems simple enough, but is that what this is all about?

At the core of every financial plan is the value system of its manager. Our motivations for work and spending are driven by what is important to us. Consider all the women who choose to leave work for a time so that they can care for their children. These women have chosen to act on their values and it has a financial impact. These families are willing to sacrifice wealth in favor of building character and security of relationships for their children. They made the choice to forfeit income and spending in order to accommodate their goals.

On the flip side, (old record slang; means the music on the opposite side of the record) how many of our decisions about earning and spending are not driven by our value systems? How many times do we allow advertisers to coerce us into making split second choices to take advantage of an offer that won't be available tomorrow? Advertising prompts us to make emotionally driven decisions regarding the spending of our money. I will write more on that another time, but suffice it to say that when we are being driven emotionally, we frequently are not adhering to our over-arching goals.

Financial planning (or any planning for that matter) is based on establishing goals that guide the project or process. In the case of Financial Planning the goals are life goals and they guide the decisions around earning, spending, saving, investing and gifting. I believe there are so many people floundering financially is because they have not established their purpose in life. They make only short term decisions because they have not developed a vision for their future.

As Christians we should be leading the world and modeling a purpose driven life. Our purposes should be fixed on so ordering our lives to honor the Lord and growing in the likeness of his character that it affects how we order our time and our money. I have said it before...I would do such and such, but I don't have enough time. I have heard over and over again that the cause of financial stress is a lack of income and available savings.

It really isn't the LACK of time or money that causes the issues that we face generally. It is the ORDERING of our decisions surrounding these commodities that gets us into trouble. Let me ask you, is Jesus Christ your Lord? Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ; one that you can depend on to save your soul? Does this relationship change how you order your time? your money? How much time do we give to prayer? How much time do we give to Bible Study? How much time do we give to applying the lessons learned from our Bible Study? Are we seeing Jesus' character being developed in our lives? To order our decisions according to God's principles requires that we are walking in the Spirit and that we actively discipline our choices.

The same is true with our financial decisions. If Jesus is our Lord, then every penny of our increase should be dedicated for the purpose of serving him well in whatever circumstance we are. By in large we don't see that to be true in our lives, generally because we have not set our purposes down before the Lord and established a plan to achieve them. When we have established goals, our life takes on new direction and purpose. Every decision that we make becomes ordered to ensure the success of our mission.

There is more to serving the Lord than just living day to day and spending the increase for our comfort. We live in economically pressed times primarily because we were not focused on eternal things but on temporal. We have been very short term in our focus and have not prepared for our future.

Today is the day we can change all of that. I have established a planning firm with that end in mind: to help families and churches establish an eternal focus and order their time and wealth around the eternally minded goals we have set. You can visit me at http://www.eternal-values.com/ or write me at loriirwin@eternal-values.com. You can begin yourself as well by praying about the following - you need God's focus to answer these questions:

1. What do you want to be remembered for after the Lord takes you home to heaven? What impact do you want to make in the lives of others? What character qualities do you want to develop? Why are you here? What is the Lord's plan for your life?

2. If I were to be successful in my life's mission, what are my benchmarks along the way. What should I have accomplished in 20 years, 10 years, 5 years, 1 year?

3. What should I be doing today to further these goals? Do my choices with time and wealth help me toward my desired end?

I understand that we are often caught up in the busyness of our day to day lives. There is so much to do and precious little time. It is very easy to lose the grander picture in the pixels of our daily routines. That is why we must take the time to establish our goals to give our life direction. Once you have set these goals down in writing, you can just check back regularly to see if you are moving toward their success or away from it.

Some things may need to be stripped from our lives that don't do anything to perpetuate our mission. I have to personally consider whether my time is well spent watching television or surfing the Internet. I have to personally consider whether my work attitudes honor God. If He were to stand next to me, would he be pleased with my spending choices? Our Lord cares about the details of our lives because it is in the details that our character is developed. Luke 16:11 says it well for me, "If therefore, you have not been faithful in handling worldly wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you".

Let us run this race with purpose and perseverance. This is not a race for the fainthearted but for those who will keep their eyes on the prize of our high calling. Remember our charge given to us in Hebrews 12:1-3: "let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

My gentle reader, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might that you may be able to stand against the influences of this world and live a bold life in witness to the work of Jesus accomplished in you and for the world.