"Don't Spend It All"

"Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment." Proverbs 13:23 

I recently went to the market to purchase a bag of peanuts. I wanted to get the jumbo size but was told that they would no longer be getting that size because the farmers are not selling them any more this year. They are putting them back for seed for next year. This is a wise move on the farmer's part. Although they could sell those peanuts now and get the extra money for them, they made the choice to save them.

 

The Proverbs addressed this very thing in the verse above. Sometimes we complain about not having enough but the truth is it is not because the Lord hasn't blessed us, most the time it is because of what we do with it. Often, we use poor management with what we get--- we want to spend it all now with no foresight. Those peanut farmers had the foresight to know that if they were still here next year, they would need seed to plant another crop, so they saved them in order to get more later instead of a little now. We don't use good judgment at times-- we want to spend it on needless things that have no value. 

 

Let me give you an example of this. Many years ago, my husband worked offshore. I will never forget this one guy he worked with and his wife. As soon as they got his paycheck they would go to town and spend every bit of it on needless things. (They would spend it all and have nothing to show for it.) The next day they would be crying and worrying about how they were going to pay their rent, car note, utility bills and buy groceries. The man made a good amount of money, but one day after he was paid it was all gone and nothing important was paid. 

 

What are you doing with the material things that God has blessed you with? Are you being a good steward with it? Are you making wise choices? Are you managing it well? Are you using good judgment? Are you thinking ahead? Or does it (like my mama used to say) "burn a hole in your pocket"? I know that often what we do have may not be much, but if we will use good judgment and take care of it properly, we will have more than we realize.

 

Have a great day. Don't spend all you have without any thought to tomorrow.

 

For further reading:

Proverbs 6:6-8