Generation Change Week 4

It’s interesting to see how serious we can be about our money. This past weekend in Resurrection and Uprising we did an exercise where the students were left a certain sum of money from their “Aunt Ira” who asked them to give it all away. The point of the exercise was to see how creative they could get with their giving. Some of the students said they would give it all to Nativity, some said to a charity of their choice, some asked if they could make themselves a charity and give it to themselves. It was great to hear the answers because you saw what they were passionate about or what is important to them; however, I also saw the difficulty in the challenge because it’s hard to think about what you would do with $10K or even $500, especially if you don’t have many financial obligations.
About 7 months ago I entered a recipe into the Pillsbury Bakeoff…needless to say I did not make it into the top 100. If I had made it into the top 100 I would have had a shot at winning $1 million. I was set on winning it because I had a plan.

1. First 10% to Nativity
2. Pay off mortgage and school loans
3. Buy a newer car
4. Put away $200,000 in savings

But even after doing all of that I would of had some money left over and even the fourth thing on the list is too vague because it’s not like I would quit my job and with no debt, would I need that much in saving? To tell you the truth, even though I could have used the majority of that money wisely, there would have been a great risk of wasting the rest. If God’s going to trust me with huge amounts of money, I have to be good with the small amounts. I think if my “Aunt Ira” were to leave me money, it would be a challenge to figure out the best use of that money. Right now let’s see how I do with November’s budget.