Let's imagine that you need to go to the doctor's office because you're really sick, but you don't know what's wrong. Your husband is going to drive you, and you're pretty sure he knows how to get there. You have exactly 35 minutes until your appointment time and you remember that it takes you 30 minutes to drive there under normal conditions.
So, you get in the car and you're on your way. On the way, your husband decides you MUST stop to get gas and a coke even though you have 1/2 a tank, and then when you're back on the road, he makes a left turn when he should have gone straight, and you're thinking, "He must know a short-cut, so I'll just wait and see how we get there going this way." He takes a couple more turns and you end up on a lonely country road in the middle of nowhere, and now it's 10 minutes until your appointment. Now, you start to ask him questions like, "What street is this?" and "Where are we going?" and saying, "I don't think this is the way."
Your husband was thinking this the entire time, but he was afraid to say anything either because he didn't want to appear foolish.
Now, you're late for your appointment and totally lost--and you're both frustrated, stressed and you're starting to really feel awful--because you're sick, remember?
What happened here? You KNEW how to get there, but you didn't make sure your husband was on the same page. You didn't ask him any questions or let him know your time constraints. You didn't say anything when he started making wrong turns. He didn't have the same plan you did, but you didn't know that because you didn't communicate the plan before you left.
That's a lot like how we budget and spend our money (God's money). We have a plan in our head as to how we're going to spend the money, but we don't effectively communicate it to our spouses. Either they don't care or assume you're handling it pretty well because you haven't said anything.
A written budget is a "spending PLAN." Let me repeat that... A written (on paper) budget is a spending plan made out before you spend the money--BEST discussed by husband and wife together. Written or typed so that you can review it and check the numbers so that it's not just a guess or estimate, and when something else pops up, it doesn't throw everything out of whack.
"Plan to spend" -- that reminds me of when we were pinching every single penny to pay off our debt, and I would tell Gabriel I was going to the grocery store, and he would reply by saying, "Don't spend any money." Well, I certainly can't get EVERYTHING for free, and we had children to feed--I had to have a plan because I WAS going to spend money, but without a list or plan, I would spend WAY more than I had hoped.
Most of you know Jeremiah 29:11:
"For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."
What about Psalm 40:5?
O LORD my God, you have done many miracles for us. Your plans for us are too numerous to list. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them."
He wants us to make plans, too, but plans that are for HIS glory. Listen to Psalm 20:4-5:
"May he grant your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans. May we shout for joy when we hear of your victory, flying banners to honor our God. May the LORD answer all your prayers."
So if we look at our budget as a spending plan to honor God, it's not that four-letter word you think of when you hear the word "budget." It's instead a plan for FREEDOM!
This is what we do when we make a written budget:
Plan for the expected & unexpected
Proverbs 22:3 says, "A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."
Plan for wise spending (budget, impulse list & wants vs needs)
Plan to get out and stay out of debt
Plan to give
These things don't usually just happen to you--like Keith's message on Sunday, we have to be intentional and "prepare our minds for action" and initiate the plan, the change, yes, the cut-backs or sacrifices necessary to make the plan work. You don't want to make the plan so rigid that you cannot follow it without a mistake here or there--you need to make changes monthly because a budget will not remain the same unless all your spending and income always remain exactly the same.
Now, I said that a budget is a plan for freedom--let's take a look at that:
How much freedom is there when there's only $10 in the bank and you need to buy food for the week to feed your family? If you're like me--this can make you feel like a failure, guilty for not being able to give your family the healthy meals they need to thrive. Think of what it does for your husband when he feels like all the work he's doing comes to this! Or maybe you don't have enough money to pay for the course you need to finish your degree or get ahead in your career or fix things around the house when they get broken? Any way you look at it, that feeling you get when you realize that you've not planned well with the money God has given you is NOT freedom.
There really is freedom in realistic, careful planning, and discipline to stick with that plan and revise it often while communicating with your spouse, asking him for his input---these things help you get where you want to go, where God wants you. For example, look at the Goal Setting exercise you received last week and hopefully got some work done on it--where are you headed?
Proverbs 21:20 says,
"In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has."
Let's plan how we're going to spend His resources before we foolishly spend whatever we get.
This week we will begin reading The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. We will spend a few weeks on this one, so if you haven't read The Treasure Principle yet or Your Money Counts, you still have some time to get one in. Check around, you might be able to borrow a copy if you have not purchased one already.
Click for Bible study for the week: Week 4 -- Spending
I'm going to give you all a break in homework in order for you to catch up on the previous weeks' homework (taking inventory, filling out the financial statement, recording expenses, writing down goals and discussing them with your spouse, etc.). You can also take this time to catch up on your recommended reading. Once you have enough information on your 30-Day Diary, we can compile your current budget, so don't delay!
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