Hope for your financial life and beyond

Snickers Isn’t the Only Thing That Satisfies

November 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Around 3:00 pm this Thursday afternoon, I expect to be settling down into the leather reclining love seat in my living room for my annual post Thanksgiving Day meal ritual. Kids will be running around the house, there will be the noise of dishes getting cleaned in the kitchen and the CBS football analysts will probably be dissecting a helmet-to-helmet personal foul call.

Yes, there will be a lot of noise, but it won’t matter. I’ll have a really satisfied feeling. My body will need to allocate more energy towards food digestion which means less blood flowing to other parts of the body, including the central nervous system. With blood flow to the CNS decreased, I can foresee only one possible outcome…nap time.

We love food that satisfies. In fact, Mars, Incorporated in the 1980s developed an entire add campaign for one of their candy bars around this theme. C’mon…you know the tune. Sing it with me. “Snickers satisfies you!”

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Filed Under: God's Provision, Relationships Tagged With: ,

Forget Me Not

November 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

“For the needy shall not always be forgotten; the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.” - Psalm 9:18

It has been a horrific week in the northeast. In case you missed it, Hurricane Sandy ripped through New Jersey and New York, devastating the region. Many lives have not returned to normal as they are still lacking some basic necessities of life like food and shelter. Other lives will never return to normal as they have lost loved ones to this epic storm.

With power still not restored in some places and gas in short supply, the coming days will still present a high degree of challenge for those who are assisting in the relief efforts. But this week might prove to be even tougher for the affected residents of the east coast for an entirely different set of reasons.

America is moving on to a different news cycle.

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Filed Under: Giving, Relationships Tagged With: , ,

How Do You Define Success?

September 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

What is the definition of success? How do we measure it? Is there a dividing line between success and failure? Is it based on a position you attain, how much money possess, or the power you wield? Or is it based on something more altruistic like how you impacted others or the legacy you leave behind? And who defines your success? Is it based on your own self-assessment or other people’s opinions? What is the magic formula for being successful?

That’s a lot of questions to ask and no doubt you are beginning to form your own opinions about what makes a person successful. I have a pretty good idea though that as I describe this next character, successful will be the last word that comes to your mind.

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A Giving Spirit Is the Path to Friendship

September 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I love the book of Proverbs. One reason is because Solomon filled it with so many one-liners. (I read a post once on Jon Acuff’s Stuff Christians Like blog how he describes Proverbs as the original Twitter. That’s pretty cool.) Most of the one-liners are fairly easy to digest and interpret…pretty straightforward. But once in a while, you are not exactly sure what he is trying to say. Or maybe he is trying to say multiple things in one tweet. I think that may have been the case in Proverbs 19:6 when he says,

“Many entreat the favor of the nobility, and every man is a friend to one who gives gifts.”

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Living Life With an Open Hand (Part I): Giving to the Needy

August 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment

We live in a socioeconomic divided world. There are the “haves”, the “have-nots” and the “have-in-betweens.” Your status, in regards to wealth, can determine how much influence you have, how much access you have to important people, and how many things you can buy for yourself. It is a measure of your success, power and importance. You are somebody if you have money, and you are nobody if you have none. At least that is how most of the world sees it.

So we have this financial asset disparity present in our world, yet we all, rich and poor alike, have to share the same space. We only have one earth. With that being the case, unless NASA (or Sir Richard Branson) decides to start a colony on the moon where only the rich will be able to afford the space ride, we are stuck with one another. That means we will have to figure out how to coexist peaceably, figure out how to treat one another, and figure out what our responsibilities are to those who have more or less than we do. And we already have seen how hard relationships can be.

The Bible’s Take on Giving to the Needy

The Bible weighs in often on how the rich should treat the poor. Perhaps no verse better sums it up than Deuteronomy 15:7-10 which reads:

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Filed Under: Giving, Relationships Tagged With: ,

Can Two Walk Together and Bring Financial Success?

July 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment

My wife is really different than me. She is outgoing, a get-things-done-now driver, and loves to save money. I’m more reserved, prefer to take my time with decisions, and love to spend money.

Despite our different personality types, we really don’t argue about a whole lot because we have so much in common.

Both of us have a relationship with God that rests at the core of how we relate to one another. We both enjoy the outdoors and the same type of foods. We hold to similar views on politics, education, child rearing, and who our friends will be.

And, because we learned that statistics say a leading cause of divorce in America is financial related issues, we made sure to establish guidelines and parameters for our finances that met my needs, her needs and the needs of our children.

When Two Walk Together

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Filed Under: Biblical Money Truths, Relationships Tagged With: ,

Successful Relationships Bring Financial Success (Part I)

July 20, 2012 by 2 Comments

couple arguingThe Bible is full of relationship issues.

In the first 13 chapters of Genesis alone we see a man who can’t say “no” to a woman when offered a piece of fruit; the murder of a sibling; a man deciding it was OK to marry more than one wife; humanity’s spiritual relationship with God being so strained that man is wiped off the earth (save for Noah and his family); and two relatives quarreling over land use for their livestock.

Ugh…What a mess! In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, “People…they’re the worst.”

Relationships with those around us are challenging enough and adding money issues to the equation can bring a whole new level of tension. Improperly managed relationships are financial dream killers. They can scuttle any hopes of building wealth.

Some Unhealthy Relationships

Any of these sound familiar?

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