Take Good Care
It is important that we take good care of the things God (or Good) gives us in life, whether it be our bodies, our minds, our children, our money, our hearts, our homes. This may sound obvious but also for many of us, it is not. We lack gratitude for the things we already have. Our culture constantly encourages us to aspire to more and “better,” but if we do not already value what exists in our lives, how could we possibly value whatever comes next, be it less or more?
I became aware of this when setting up a budget recently. I have prayed for financial help and received it, and the last thing I want to do is BLEEP it up, so I put my heart (and probably my soul this time, too) into properly managing my money for the first time in my life. I have a spreadsheet and I have an app. I mean BUSINESS this time, people. And rather than viewing it as a burden, as I have in the past, I considered it my duty to take good care of whatever God (or Good) had given me in response to some pretty fervent (and relatively pathetic) praying.
I have to say it feels good to be taking good care of my finances. It feels soothing. Calming. Responsible. There are plenty of adults out there probably thinking WELL DUH. OF COURSE A BUDGET FEELS BETTER, but I’m not sure all faithless people would agree.
Lacking faith is pervasive, so it’s easy to feel like, Well, BLEEP it, I might as well just have fun now and avoid learning lessons from the past (because they just feel like giant, painful mistakes) and avoid planning for the future because the worst case scenario of X always feels imminent. Having little faith is hard, so we walking faithless try to make the present feel a little easier by making a bunch of NOW-based decisions.
Only as I have developed faith in positive outcomes, in Good (or God) and the impact of prayer, have I been able to abstain from making childish, selfish, or now-based decisions because I knew I had God (or Good) on my side as I worked toward my goals.
Many people don’t understand why faithless people seem to be walking around making selfish choices or actively destroying their future in the name of having fun NOW. They don’t realize walking around without faith means the future is probably BLEEPED and feeling a lot of shame (rather than seeing value and useful lessons) about the past, so now is all we have and it’s often a relatively miserable NOW. Buying stuff or taking drugs or living with BLEEPY partners is the best we’re gonna get in a life without faith that we can wish (and pray) for better.
Faith has taught me I can pray, then wait, and inevitably get my prayers answered in concrete terms. I have gotten much better at waiting, because I know in my heart God (or Good) is looking out for me and so much more is in store for me when I believe. Faith in Good (or God) makes me want to budget. Faith in God (or Good) makes me persist through failure. Faith in Good (or God) makes me walk back into situations where I’ve made mistakes or been afraid or failed. Faith allows me to have a glimmer of hope that God (or Good) can make changes where I could not. Faith gives me dreams and provides me with the strength to pursue them.
Taking terrible care of the people, places, or things in our lives already is an expression of a lack of faith. God (or Good) turns up more and more in our lives the more we believe and act with belief. Why would Good (or God) give us more strength, more stuff, more love, more lessons, more anything, if we do not appreciate what we already have?
And the wild thing is, as soon as I started budgeting properly and sticking with it, the more money started turning up in my life, and I knew immediately it was because I had finally changed my relationship with money from one of lack and disrespect, to one of gratitude and abundance. I started believing I was worthy of money, worthy of having faith, worthy of Good (or God) and the spiritual world reciprocated with love and care.
Looking back on my life, I only wish I had understood this sooner, but I also know there was no other way to arrive at this relationship with money. I was raised in a Godless (and Goodless) world. It makes sense money didn’t matter to me, because, honestly, almost nothing did. I was almost afraid to care about things, because I was afraid to lose them, and I had no faith in better or more. Faith has changed all that, and I firmly believe it can change everything for you, too.
You, too, are worthy of Good (or God). Start small and start where you are.