Archive for September, 2008

As a Christian I know what that heading means. It means in a nutshell that we need to follow the path that God created for us even before we were conceived in the womb, a path in life that would be good for our well being.

Sadly that path has been littered with rocks, boulders, potholes,mud and loose stones.  And when it becomes a steep slippery slope  watch out for a fall.  For some who fall there will be bruising , for others  it could be fatal.

We live in a pleasure-orientated culture that focuses on the present.

The only thing we learn from history, I am afraid, is that we do not learn from history.
H.G. Wells once said that civilization was in a race between education and catastrophe. We are becoming better educated but educated in what ????.  We lack common sense in many paths of life.

What is being planed to ease the United States Financial crisis will  impact on a lot of people for a very long time.
Unfortunately I think this problem has been building for years and now I don’t think that a simple bail out will change things in the long term. Over the last 20 years we have evolved from a society that spends more than families can afford.

In the late 80′s the average family saved 10% of their income and now we are a society that lives from payday to pay day and any financial change is disastrous. People file for bankruptcy, swap credit debt from one credit card to another to hide their problems; banks make it easy to get loans without understanding their financial picture and requiring a significant down payment. Perhaps you get the picture.

We need to get back to basics. Saving before investing or buying products. Then a family could ride out the good and bad times for a while. But this is not the thinking of most people who live  in 2008!……….

They NEED to turn off the printing presses and give the dollar back some AUTHORITY and WORTH.

And while many will blame  the President, the Vice President, The Governor of the Federal Reserve, the banks,the importers, the shops that sell all those attractive things that temps us ; …..the ultimate responsibility comes back to us!!

To live within our means……The same way Esau gave up his birthright to satisfy an empty stomach ( Genesis 25:19-34 ) and live to regret it for the rest of his life….so too can we do things that will have lasting consequences.

Going by our feelings , or how we feel can be the start of a pending disaster. Emotions that prompt us to act quickly or to put ourselves first can easily lead us astray. Over-indulgence can ruin our health , financially ruin us and even lead to addiction.

Which leads us to …….

Lindsay Walker

26 September 2008.