Money. Cash. Dinero. Wampums. Moolah. Dough. Coinage. Bread. Buck. Gravy. Loot.
Huh. With so many names for it, you would think that we kind of love money or something…
Don’t get me wrong. I love the things money CAN buy, specifically food, clothes, technology, medicine… well you get the point. But as 2012 showed up this week, my husband and I sat down to look at our budget.
Let me rephrase that.
We sat down to CREATE a budget. A real one. With the goal of actually sticking to it.
I have personally made several attempts to budget in the past. I got all excited about color-coding my spreadsheet and doing simple formulas, but as far as the follow-up and use? Yeah. That lasted about 7 minutes.
This year, however, we truly do need to follow a budget. We have went from a double income budget to single, and that take some adjustment. We kept wondering: Where did our money go?
Where is YOUR money going? Do you know? (Is it like socks in a dryer? You put the debit card in your pocket and somehow the cash on it magically disappears?) Brandon and I have created a pretty intense budget guestimating where we spend our dough… The month of January will be interesting to see where we come out, especially since we are recording our expenses.
But this post isn’t really about financial advice. Believe me, I am no numbers expert. In fact, I despise numbers and money, at least when I have work with them to make them match. Instead, this blog is about looking at how richly blessed we are. Literally.
I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I am reading a book called “Guerrilla Lovers” by Vince Antonucci. Just says after creating our new Knobloch family budget, I got to the part of the book where Antonucci showcases how richly blessed we are…
Compared to the world, we are rich. Yes, rich financially.
Antonucci says in chapter 14 on page 119 that…
- 1.2 billion people do not have access to clean water. (Do you have access to clean water?)
- One billion people live in extreme poverty, meaning their access to food, water and shelter is so limited that death hangs over them. In fact, every 3 seconds, some in the world dies because they didn’t have enough food. (As you read this, is your big question “What ‘s for dinner tonight?” or “Will I live long enough to finish this chapter?”)
- 80% of the world lives in substandard housing.
- 70% of the world is unable to read.
- Only 1% of the world has a college education.
- Only 8% percent of the world owns a car. (So if you own one car, you are richer than 92% of the world! if your family owns two cars… well, you figure it out.)
Um, yeah. We own two cars. I have a great house, a masters degree, possess the ability to read (and write) this (ahem, on a computer!) and I AM thinking about what’s for dinner tonight.
Where do you stand?
Maybe the better question is… where will we stand when we come before the throne of Jesus? He has given us this financial richness not only to give at least 10% (aka first fruits) to the church, but to give the excess away. Sharing the literal wealth doesn’t mean you have to sell everything you own (unless of course you are called to do so.) Rather it means showing the love of Christ by sharing the wealth with acts of kindness/generosity.
He gives it to us so we can give it away… and ultimately bring more people with us to heaven. Show the love. Share the wealth. After all… we are livin’ rich– in more ways than one!
Cashing out,
SGK
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” –Matthew 19:23-24
