TAKIN' CARE OF BUSINESS

I've not been posting much lately. I could blame it on a number of reasons, but the bottom line is that I've just not been as diligent with my blog as I have been with other facets of my life.

That's probably a really good thing!

I finished re-reading The Richest Man In Babylon yesterday and it's got me all motivated. If you haven't read that classic gem on finances, I implore you to go get it and read it right away! Proverbs spends a ton of time talking about gaining wisdom. There is a whole lot of wisdom to be gained from this book.

Everyone has something about themselves they want to make better. For me, two things: finances and punctuality. I've already started working on both issues.

Do you have anything you want to make better about your life?

Peace, Love, and Dark Chocolate

PROVERBS: WEEK 1

As I've been reading and studying Proverbs this week, I've noticed a distinctly unmissable message: Wisdom is the key! So far, Solomon, the person attributed with the majority of the authorship of Proverbs, has hammered on the topic of wisdom for eight chapters straight, with no sign of letting up any time soon.

Besides his admonition for the reader - to whom he speaks as a father to his son - to gain wisdom, he specifies some key areas in which to gain this wisdom. In chapter 2, he encourages wisdom pertaining to the importance of avoiding "the immoral woman." He returns to the topic in chapter 5, and again in chapter 7. If someone spends the majority of three chapters (out of eight) coming back to the same topic, I would think that that author is resolved to get his point across. Maybe he has personal experience and is trying his best to warn anyone who will listen to not follow his example. We are talking about Solomon, the wise king with 700 wives and 300 girlfriends. He probably knows a thing or two about this subject!

Solomon also speaks adamantly against the love (or worship) of money. He makes quick mention of it in Prov. 3:9-10, along with a few other places, but then spends all of chapter 6 expounding on the subject. I might add that the end of chapter 6 is a segue back into the immoral woman issue.

It seems to me that Solomon really wants us to spend time working on our hearts - weeding out the junk that blinds us from the wonders God has in store for those who live holy lives. This is huge! We have a great opportunity to example the way of life to which we've been called. It starts with seeking wisdom, getting our hearts in check, promoting fidelity in our marriages, and stewarding our finances in a way that pleases God.

There's more to the story. We'll dig deeper into it as the days and weeks go by. Your thoughts?

Peace, Love, and Dark Chocolate

AND I QUOTE...

The following 8 nuggets of wisdom come from chapter 8 of Dave Ramsey's book More Than Enough.

"Work is doing it. Discipline is doing it every day. Diligence is doing it well every day."

"Prayer is vital, but God is not in the business of rewarding the lazy."

"We feel better about ourselves when we are accomplishing things."

"I have heard it said that the reason worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work."

"Discipline understands that the best way to get rich quick is to get rich slow."

"A consistent excellence is a rare thing to observe, but so is wealth. Diligence is just that: It is consistent excellence."

"I have heard it said that adults decise a plan and follow it, while children do what feels good."
"You work, you get paid; you don't work, you don't get paid."

You're welcome.

Peace, Love, and Dark Chocolate

Cha-ching!

Current Mood: frustrated

Okay, kids. I'm about fed up with money. I am in a terrible position with this money thing. I can't realistically get a good second job because of my ever-changing schedule, but I can't afford to live without a second job because I work for a ministry that doesn't pay very much. I know, some of you think "he's in Acappella. He gets paid pretty well." Yeah, not so much. I am not at liberty to discuss how much I get paid but I can tell you that it's not a lot. This is not a matter of whether or not I should be paid more from my current job. It's not even about my job or anything like that. It's about people who want my money and how I have nothing to give them.

Yes, I'm in the middle of a temporary financial setback but that's not the entirety of my issue. I am sick and tired of seeing all these people who have so much money that they don't know what to do with it or how to act. For example, Why are people like Michael Vick and Adam "Pac-Man" Jones in so much trouble with the law and the NFL? Because they got some money and started acting like they have no God-given common sense. They know better than to act foolish. Pac-Man knows he has no business in a wrestling ring. Vick knows dog fighting is just plain wrong. And would somebody please tell me why people like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richey are famous for doing nothing but being rich, spoiled, obnoxious, selfish little girls? Perhaps it's our fault as a society. We praise the rehab princes and princesses because they are "trying to get their lives together," while they walk out of the hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars rehab centers straight into their favorite bar and night club to get all juiced up enough to go for a nice, unsafe, drug-and-alcohol-influenced drive down the PCH into some innocent bystander's car...life. When will it end? How many people have to die for these folk to wake up and understand that there are more people who need the simple things in life that we americans constantly take for granted? How many cars, houses, restaurants, strip joints, designer clothes, or whatever other useless items of garbage do we need just to be happy or feel important? There's so much more to life than money or stuff. That's what we so often forget. IT'S JUST STUFF!!! We can't take it with us when we die. Even if we could, we couldn't do anything with it. It would simply go to waste. Wow. It's overwhelming to think how money (and life) gets squandered. Now do you understand my dispute with money?

Peace, Love, and Chocolate