This guest post is contributed by Rachel King, who writes on the topic of Christian Universities . Rachel welcomes your comments at her email address: email@example.com
Money simply does not have the value it once did.
There’s only so much you can stretch that dollar and it’s not going very far. Today, although you earn much more than your parents did, it’s still not enough because your lifestyle has become more lavish too. It’s almost obscene the amount of money we waste on things that are not really essential and the amount of money we borrow to spend (credit cards).
What with the recent economic crash, there’s more reason now than ever before to save money, and what better way than to do it in the way Christ taught us, using His parables.
Three Parables That Have Financial Implications
The Good Samaritan
A traveler is beaten up and robbed and left to die. While priests and temple assistants ignore his plight and pass on by, a despised Samaritan takes him to an inn and cares for him.
While the story emphasizes that we must see good where it really exists and not where we think it exists, financially, it could mean that you must know which financial products are good for you and which are not suitable.
For example, the credit card may seem more desirable when compared to a debit card, but the latter does not make you a debtor like the former does.
Moral of the story – all that glitters is not gold.
The Prodigal Son
The tale of the rebel son who shuns his parents, takes his inheritance, blows it all up and goes to ruin in the process serves to teach us the lesson that wise investments help you avoid losses. You need to be prudent and use your senses to judge which financial decisions are sound and which are not. If you insist on squandering all the money you have, you’re going to find yourself in a mess, and the only difference from this parable is that you won’t have benevolent and forgiving people to bring out the fatted calf on your return.
Moral of the story – don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
The Lost Coin (or the Lost Sheep)
This parable recounts the tale of a woman who had ten coins and lost one of them. She lit a lamp and searched high and low until she found the one she had lost.
The lost sheep refers to a shepherd who searches for one of the hundred sheep he has lost until he finds it. So too must you be careful with your money.
You must take care to keep what you have secure instead of being negligent and frittering all your money away.