May 10
Encouragement for Today
“Cheap Labor Can be Expensive”
Sharon Glasgow, Proverbs 31 Speaker Team Member
Key Verse:
Proverbs 21:5, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, But those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty.” (NKJV)
Devotion:
I opened the kitchen door and a blast of water came splashing all over me. Water was pouring down from the ceiling fan and circling the room in high-speed motion. Quickly I turned off the fan and realized that water was not only coming from the fan, but down all four corners of the ceiling. Dale, my husband, ran for the upstairs problem. I ran to the basement to turn the electricity off and to my amazement, the water was already traveling through the basement walls and short-circuiting the electric.
Water was in every cabinet and drawer in the kitchen. We didn’t have enough towels and blankets to sop up all the water from the raining ceiling!
We found the culprit – a stopped-up toilet that wouldn’t stop overflowing! We had a problem with that toilet from day one – the water wouldn’t stop running and there was a pipe positioned wrong. A few months before, I had hastily hired a “cheap” make shift plumber to fix the problem. He was a fraction of the cost of the real plumber Dale wanted to hire. Well, my cheap labor cost a whopping $8000 to repair all the damage incurred because of my wrong decision.
The Proverbs 31 woman “watches over the ways of her household.” I thought I was watching over the ways of my household, but the problem was that I acted hastily and didn’t listen to my husband. I made a wrong decision because I thought cheap was better! I should have listened to my wise husband. We need to be good stewards of the money with which God entrusts us. Being a good steward means we need to ask God to lead our financial decisions. Proverbs 3:5 states, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path.”
God will lead us to make wise decisions.
God is watching how we take care of our household. Are we diligent in all that we do, to be wise and careful with the resources he gives us? 2 Corinthians 5:9-11 says that we are to make it our aim to please Him in all things. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
My Prayer for Today:
Lord, thank You for being patient with me when I do the wrong things. Please help me to follow Your leading in all of the financial decisions I have to make. Help me to be obedient with the resources you have blessed me with. You are my Provider and I thank You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Application Steps:
Daily ask God to direct your financial decisions. Educate yourself on issues in which you have no expertise and search diligently for the best solutions to problems that need answers. Consult with your husband about the research you find and carefully come up with a plan for resolution. Don’t take the “out of sight, out of mind” approach – unfinished business has a way of catching up to us.
Reflection Points:
Do you think God approves of the financial decisions you are making right now?
Do you want your children to follow in your example on how you “watch over the ways of your household”?
Power Verses:
I Timothy 6:17, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” (NKJV)
Deuteronomy 28:2-6, “And these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out.” (NKJV)
Additional Resources:
P31 Woman Magazine
http://proverbs31.gospelcom.net/woman.htm
Radically Obedient, Radically Blessed, by Lysa TerKeurst
http://proverbs31.gospelcom.net/resources/radical.html
Frugal Families, by Jonni McCoy
http://proverbs31.gospelcom.net/resources/frugal.html
Originally published Tuesday, 10 May 2005.
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