In my recent posts I said my first two of three keys to financial peace are discernment and faith. Here you will find my third key but first I will review. Discernment means I evaluate all my financial options so I can make decisions that help me meet my financial goals. The prerequisite to discernment is to have goals, for example a budget with predetermined expenditure allowances.
Faith in finances means I act upon my financial goals, trusting my predetermined budget is the best plan for me and following through on it. Faith also involves identifying trustworthy voices that provide expert advice and following that advice. The prerequisite to faith is humility. Before I reveal my third key to financial peace I want to relate an incident that happened to me very recently.
I entered a small local greeting card store in my neighborhood. The woman running the cash register was describing to a customer her tragic circumstances. She is in her mid 60’s. She had a heart attack at age 61. She has received some money from Medicare. Now the government claims she owes them several thousand dollars because they overpaid her. She doesn’t have that money. She’s living paycheck to paycheck. Now the government says they won’t give her any more money. She suspects they may take her house. She doesn’t care because she can’t make the payments anyway.
It is really tough living for a lot of people in the U.S. today. However, is it really that tough? I have seen tough living in my world travels to the south and east. I saw people living at the garbage dump, in neighborhoods that looked like a warzone, and in mud huts with thatched roofs. I have read about tough living in the Caribbean Islands, 20th century China, and North Korea, where common folks could not afford a bowl of rice. I receive a monthly magazine called International Christian Concern where I read about whole villages where on account of their faith, masses of people are being slaughtered, homes and churches destroyed, women raped and sold into slavery, pastors imprisoned, and more. That is tough living. We in the U.S. are not there yet.
My third key to financial peace is discipline and I will explain it in detail next time.