The Thanksgiving holiday in the USA is behind us (except for its crass commercialization, unfortunately). One thing I found myself being thankful for this year was being able to share with others the bounty God has showered upon me. I haven't always taken that opportunity as I should have. When my wife and I were younger and had several children living at home, our income was less and day-to-day expenses greater, and we were carrying too much debt. So, I I felt anxious about every dollar and was too reluctant to part with even a few to help the needy and other good causes. I shouldn't have been that way; my faith in God's providence was lacking.
In any event, I'm blessed to still be here today, with my health and a good job, and my children are all on their own. We CAN and now DO more to help those less fortunate, though of course there's so much more we could and should be doing--personally, and not just by sending dollars someplace. With the Lord's help we've learned over the years to be reasonably frugal and to live within our means, so we now have an excess beyond minimum sustenance that can be used to do things like support children and families in Asia, supply our local homeless relief mission, and fund missionary efforts, as well as to help our children and a few friends through rough economic stretches. We've also managed to stockpile supplies of non-perishable food and water to help ourselves and our neighbors through an emergency.
It's so important not to get distracted by the dazzling images of opulence that modern society dangles before people's eyes, to entice us into a life of careless spending and debt that only makes a few others rich and ourselves helpless and dependent on assistance for our very survival. Not only does that open us to a corrupting level of control by those upon whom we're dependent, it prevents us from obtaining the blessings, to ourselves and others, that flow from helping the less fortunate. How can we properly care for our families and help the poor, as God expects us to do (1 John 3:17–19), if all our means have been frittered away on unnecessaries? Remember this admonition: "[L]et him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." (Ephesians 4:28)
Get into the habit of pausing before you buy anything, or subscribe to any service, that isn't indisputably essential to daily existence. Do I really NEED that big-screen TV or that new mobile device? Can our family have a nice vacation somewhere besides Disney World? Carefully consider--and pray--whether other, more important things might be done with the money you'd be spending, including saving it away for harder times, or to assist someone else. If you condition yourself to put your family and others in mind first, and the future before the present, you'll develop habits of prudent living that will enable you, your loved ones, and your neighbors, with God's help, to weather any storm and remain strong in God's service.
Tom Fleming
Songs of Praises
