The turkey is perfectly cooked, the mac & cheese is extra gooey and the cakes and pies taste just as sweet as you imagined they would. For most people Thanksgiving is all about the food. Yes I can hear you saying “Well what about family”. Family is great but let’s be honest if grandma wasn’t making her famous peach cobbler would you really be willing to endure watching your drunk uncle scream at the quarterback on TV for 3 hours. Not to mention grandma’s cobbler has a way of even making that new boyfriend your daughter invited to dinner not seem so bad.
Aside from food and family most people also look to Thanksgiving as a time to reflect on all the things in their life they are thankful for. With that in mind I got to thinking about what financial advice or accomplishment I was most thankful for. If you take a moment and think about it I’m sure you will remember some small tidbit of advice that you heard that really made a difference in your financial life. Maybe it was save for a rainy day, or buy low and sell high, perhaps it was something simpler like how to stretch out a meal on a small income. Perhaps your greatest financial accomplishment was something major like buying your first house, or paying off all your debt. It could be something simple like bringing your first tithe check to the alter at church or saving your first $100.
Whatever your financial accomplishment was or the advice you received, the key is to be thankful for it. Just remember there are a lot of people in the world that would have loved to receive the same advice you received but didn’t. There are many people that would feel a great sense of pride if they had achieved some of the same financial accomplishments you have.
Unless we take the time to reflect and be thankful for our financial blessings no matter how small or inconspicuous we can never really grow or learn to be better stewards of the resources God has given us. For me the best advice I ever received about money was to turn it over completely to God and live my financial life in such a way as to please Him. This simple yet vastly complex concept of stewardship is the financial principle I’m most thankful to have learned. I’m thankful for the impact it has made on my life and the lives of those we have been able to teach through our ministry.
So when you’re sitting on the couch tonight after dinner with a few buttons loosened on your pants take a moment and reflect on your financial life. Think about where you have been and where you want to go and say a quick thank you before you reach for that second piece of pie. Better yet if the advice you received was really good share it with someone in your family. Share your financial accomplishment with them and how you did it. You never know maybe your words will be the advice someone else is being thankful years from now.
Now that you have heard my two cents what’s your take? What financial advice or financial accomplishment are you most thankful for? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Article submitted by Efrem Jackson – Founder, Free to Serve Financial Ministries