Time and money are two of God’s greatest gifts to mankind.  Both are finite resources that He offers us as both a blessing and a challenge.  Both are tools that we use to accomplish our objectives as well as tools that God uses to shape us.

Consider for a moment what financial resources you have and how much time you have in the coming weeks. God has given you time and money to shape the landscape of your life in a way that will honor Him. 

Money has no intrinsic value other than what you exchange it for when you spend or use it.  I’m not encouraging you to spend all of (or more than) what you have, but I would encourage you to examine your priorities for your family and use the resources you have in joyfully meeting some of those priorities for your family.

Perhaps your resources are more limited than ever.  In that case, see if you can think in terms of less expensive ways to meet the same priorities for your family.  Work on augmenting your cash with your creativity to create special memories for your family.  When my kids were young, one of their favorite Christmas gifts was an envelope I gave them that listed five ways we could spend time together – they got to choose one option on the list so that we could have guaranteed one-on-one time.  They loved it, and it was not expensive, but it allowed me to offer time to them as an alternative to the money I might have spent.

In the same way, time is a tool. Life todays feels like it requires an overwhelming amount of time in preparation and execution.  However, if we fail to view time as a tool and allocate it in a way that meets our priorities, then we will get trapped in what feels like an endless cycle of commitments. I recently heard someone say that instead of saying, “I don’t have time for that,” we should say “that is not a priority for me.” These are effectively identical statements, but when we say something isn’t a priority we have the opportunity to examine our priorities. Try this out over the next few weeks and see how it alters your perspective. 

God’s Word speaks to finding balance in our financial life as we depend on Him and seek to be wise stewards.  Proverbs 30:7-9 says, “Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I die): Remove falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches – feed me with the food allotted to me; lest I be full and deny You, and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God.’” (NKJV)

May God’s peace encourage you as you pursue financial wisdom and depend on His Truth.