How To Keep Finances From Fizzling The Flame Series

HOW TO KEEP FINANCES FROM FIZZLING THE FLAME

Howard Dayton said, in a report released in 1986, that at the time, 56% of all divorces were a result of financial tension in the home. (Howard Dayton, Homemade, June 1986)

Let’s face it, how we handle money makes a great impact on our home life, on our families, and on our marriages. When we make wise choices and wise decisions, our marriages benefit. When we make unwise decisions, they suffer.

So, how are we to handle our finances in the home? What do we do to keep our money problems from destroying the romance? How do we keep finances from fizzling the flame?

This morning I would like to share with you 5 biblical principals to wisely handling money in your marriage; 5 ways to keep finances from fizzling the flame.

1. Consider your spouse.

> Matthew 7:12 Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you,

do also the same for them ...

God has wired us all differently. He has made us with

different priorities, different dreams, different personalities. Some of

us are spenders. Some are savers. Some of us think one thing is a

good deal, while others think we’re wasting money. God has made us

different. When you’re thinking about your finances, when you’re

talking about money, consider your spouse.

For instance, most of us preachers love books. We seldom

see a book we don’t want. Tom told me that after attending

seminary, he knew the Lord wasn’t calling him to be a preacher

because he was willing to sell his books. Our wives don’t always

share our fascination with books. I know a student whose wife

placed a book on his plate at the supper table one night because she

told him they didn’t have money for groceries. He’d spent it all on

books.

Well, he needed to consider his spouse before he continued to buy what was important to him.

Gentlemen, you need to consider your spouse when you’re making financial decisions. Ladies, you need to consider your husband and his feelings, try to see things from his perspective when talking about money. If you continue to spend, imagine the helplessness your husband or your wife feels when he or she can’t see you ever getting ahead.

If you want to keep finances from fizzling the flame, consider your spouse. If you want to keep finances from fizzling the flame, count the cost.

- Luke 14:25-33

In this parable, in this instruction, Jesus is primarily talking about the importance of counting the cost of following Him. He says, “If you are going to be His disciple, you must count the cost.” The principle He leaves us with, however, is that everything has a cost. When we make a decision we must count the cost.

2. Count the Cost - “Think for a moment of the most worthless, unnecessary purchase you have made in recent years. Perhaps it was an electric shaver that now sits in the garage or an article of clothing that will never be worn. It is important to realize that this item was not purchased with your money; it was bought with your time, which you traded for money. In effect, you swapped a certain portion of your allotted days on earth for that piece of junk that now clutters your home.” (Dr. James Dobson & Ron Blue, Four Principles of Money Management, Family.org web site).

For that purchase, you traded time you could have spent with your family, that you now have to spend working. Let me ask you, how many of your son’s ball games will you have to miss working overtime, in order to buy that bigger house? How many of your daughter’s recitals will that new computer cost you?

When God placed Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden He told them to tend the garden. There is nothing wrong with work, we need to make productive use of our time. But, remember that everything has a cost.

Do you remember the parable of the Good Samaritan? A man was robbed, beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. The Good Samaritan came along, doctored the man, took him to a hotel and paid for the injured man to stay there while he healed. I wonder. How many of us would be able to do that today? I am afraid that the debt load that many carry in order to have the latest, or newest, has cost them the ability to minister to those in need. The treasures we’re paying on here, often keeps us from accumulating treasures in heaven.

Gentlemen, ladies, count the cost. To keep finances from fizzling the flame, consider your spouse, count the cost, and third, choose what matters most.