Wow reading Matthew 25:20-30 you can really see where our Lord gets down on laziness and well just plain not thinking! You see that each man was blessed with a number of talents and did something to increase them when they came to their Father, except for one – he only had one talent and buried it until the day to see his Father – did he bury it out of laziness, out of fear or out of the pure fact he had no idea what to do – no matter what his reason, God punished him. He could have done something to find out what he should have done, he could have worked harder and he could have “trusted” in the Father to provide and done what he was supposed to. There was no getting out of it.
OK so we know from this we need to invest what we gain to increase our “gains”. God is giving us the ablity to gain in our financial areas of our lives but that is not all that has to be done, that is not all he wants for us – we need to then be wise and invest for our futures and for our children’s futures.
It was interesting to hear the financial “giving” mistakes Donna Partow had made throughout her life – thinking that was what was suppose to be done “helping those in need” but now learning that we are to also investigate on why those people are in such need and are they really trying to make a better life for themselves or just look for a handout is what is needed. I am always skeptical and was thinking I was too critical of people when they were asking for help and deciding not to when they do not and have not shown any signs to help themselves – now I feel at ease that I am doing the right thing. This becomes the hardest when it is your adult children! You don’t want to see them or your grand babies suffer but when you keep helping and the same issues keep coming up are you really helping them?
The co-sign issue – I have only co-signed for one person, my daughter Mariah and her college loans. As I see it her father and I should have invested and paid for her schooling. She did her part, was a great student, a great child, a great friend, and we did not do ours. SO we had her apply for the loans – I co-signed and her father and I pay the interest while she is in school. When she gets out the three of us will work together to pay them off. It is not just her burden in this case I believe with all of my heart! I will not co-sign for anyone else (well maybe Tucker under the same situations) I will not put my financial reputation on the line.
Dear Lord I Pray…Dear Jesus – Thank you for this message today. Thank you for blessing Jodie and I with many “talents” in our lives. I do believe that you are guiding us financially right now. You have set him up in a way to put the max in his retirement account at work, you have brought us the opportunity for a good stock market buy that has great potential. You have blessed my company with additional income so that I can invest in my knowledge for the future growth. We don’t take these blessing lightly, Thank You. Please help guide us in the area of helping his kids financially – it is so hard to know what we really should do – I want to give it to you Lord and ask that you will whisper to me what we need to do and hold me tight to be strong. And if I don’t hear your whisper go ahead and yell at me, will ya? No I promise to do my part and to hear you Lord with your whisper – I know that when the message is coming to me it is not from Satan it is YOU speaking to me loud and clear for you have pushed him far from me and I am the only one that can allow him close again by not trusting YOU. IN Your Name Amen!