Worthy Words

Pro quarterback Tim Tebow stated this year, during his highly publicized over-analyzed success as quarterback of the Denver Broncos, that: "In the NFL, there are 30 QB’s who can throw better than I can. But I’d like to think that I can help guys win." I guess that's what it comes down to, isn't it? Being able to win. In the NFL, as in life, content is more valuable than form. A district manager of a drug retail chain told me that many under-achieving store managers try to score points by having a spick and span store — as if that makes up for lack of profit. It becomes more apparent as the years go by that overall in our society folks tend to value form over content. Most home improvement experts on HGTV tell their viewers that on a percentage basis, a new coat of paint will increase a home's selling price far more than new plumbing will. This is a snare we must spurn. In the Old Testament, we are reminded that God's priorities are different than ours.

There are a wide array of books, seminars, and gurus suggesting the right way to achieve financial freedom. To be sure there is more that one way to free yourself and your family from debt. Most will cost you money, the very thing you’re trying to save. I have some free advice. Yes, free! They are habits I am using to gain my goals of financial freedom. The key word is “habit.” It requires some time, effort, and determination to discipline yourself, but inch-by-inch you can free yourself from the slavery of debt. 1. Earn An Honest Living "Those unwilling to work will not get to eat." 11 Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people's business. 12 We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn their own living.    2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 NLT 2. Plan Your Spending Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty. Proverb

Back on the farm in my early teens we had a 60 Dodge pickup that we used for chores and going to the feed store to pick up supplies. It was a tin can on wheels. I don’t know what my uncle paid for it but I couldn’t have been very much. My experience with this truck has kept me out of Dodge dealership ever since. You see, it developed two problems. One, the heater didn't work. Two, reverse didn't work. You can go without a heater (after all we live in Texas), but it's hard to drive a pickup that doesn't go into reverse. I said hard, but not impossible. I learned to drive with a “can’t back-up” mentality. I wouldn't pull up and park behind other farm equipment unless it was on a slope and I could roll my way back away from them. In parking lots, I looked for two empty spaces, so I could pull through the first and park in the second, as if I had backed in. I got pretty good at it, making it through most situations not driving backwards. This is a terrible way to

The pace of life is eroding the stability of families. It makes good people act crazy and makes otherwise healthy individuals become susceptible to sickness, to broken relationships, to sin. The old adage “speed kills” no longer refers only to drivers on the highway. Families today are severely tired. We are too busy and too distracted to find much hope unless we undergo some drastic “family overhaul.” What happens when our families run too fast for too long? The hurry and busyness of life can be the great destroyers of an otherwise healthy family. The philosopher in the previous century, Carl Jung put it this way: “Hurry is not of the Devil; hurry is the Devil.” Decades later Richard Foster wrote, “Our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in ‘muchness’ and ‘manyness,’ he will rest satisfied.” Let’s face it: Everything is more dangerous at high speed. When we are overly tired, we tend to become numb to what matters most in our life.