These Perilous Times...Were we really prepared as a nation?

I am so very grateful for everything I have right now. A roof over my head and a haven for my adult children. I drive a vehicle which was bought used. Yes, it's a Mercedes and yes it is very comfortable vehicle. We have bought all our cars used from a local auto dealer we established a good relationship with. I feel so fortunate that we have been able to purchase safe comfortable cars for our last 2 children (a 1995 BMW and 1995 Mercedes E320)when they graduated high school. Purposeful living afforded that gift. All my children are well, respectful and honorable adults. We budget with purpose and have learned to question our purchases before we make them but our bills get paid, we have food on the table and we're very fortunate to have medical benefits.

There are many families and individuals like us. The sad thing is there are many who did not receive lessons presented to get their affairs in order. Plans to live wisely eluded them. What is it they say? Failing to plan is by default a plan to fail. Again, I am not speaking to any who have been on this purposeful living course and are continually working very hard to an even more purposeful life. No matter when the realization comes to living poorly, the important thing is change courses. For our family that came in 2009. I am so very grateful we were allowed the opportunity to begin getting some things in order before our economy got real bad.

The perilous times facing so many right now is truly heart breaking. My husband and I were so humbled and sobered the other night watching 60 Minutes. There was a segment on how many well meaning people (many who had been middle and upper managers as well as executives) who's lives spiraled out of control when they lost their jobs ending well established careers. They have spent their retirement and their children's college funds in effort to keep their homes, pay bills and put food on the table. Things they might have taken a little for granted before.

The segments focus was on the 99 week policy we have for unemployment and how many have still not been able to find jobs. Their unemployement is about to run out and after almost 2 years they still have no employment. One previous executive shared how he was genuinely happy to have just been hired as a sales clerk at Target. The experience has been very humbling and somber for so many.

What is happening is devastating and it is only by the grace of God we have not met such dire circumstances. I hope what I am about to say is not found offensive but rather becomes a moment of honest reflection and hindsight. As a nation, for many years we have lived a priveleged (and some analysts say spoiled) existence. Studies show we spend the most on education while coming in about 4th worldwide on the quality and level of that education. We have advocated instant gratification and entitlement instead of earning to achieve and living with purpose and value. Spend, spend, spend, get it now. There has been a calculated move to teach us to live above our means more and more through the use of credit cards and mortgaging our homes to their well inflated limit.

As a result, one portion of those now found in devastating times are quite truthfully due to years and years of living above their means. Getting bigger houses, cars and things they really could not afford. Homes filled with stuff that now means nothing. They never thought, no matter how bad it got in the economy that they would be thinking about how they are going to eat next week. They suffer now in part from slipping into a slumber on their plan to live wisely and responsibly. Some slopes have crushed families into a pit that seems insurmountable. The slope of frivolous living we have all been on at some point.

Thankfully many are learning a new way to live and they are planning with more more wisdom and quality. It is a tough way to learn what life is truly about but the gains are tremendous.

(These thoughts stemmed from watching a segment of 60 Minutes and my devotional reading this morning. Proverbs 27:23-27 spoke to me about living purposely with a hard earned plan that when put in place faithfully will bring security through tough times. Be blessed!

Daily Devotional 1

In reading Proverbs this morning, I found a scripture that backs how I have always felt about fighting. I preface my thoughts however with this - there is a time to fight and that is to defend your life or family - but this instance is really very rare. A huge majority of fights are simply temporal matters we need not be drawn into.

Let me introduce the scripture here. "Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding him like grain with a pestle, you will not remove his folly from him" (Proverbs 27:22/NIV). In my younger years I can't recount any fights I saw where a foolish person changed his mind because he was beat up. The victor may have won the physical fight but it did not change the venom the foolish person spewed. As a matter of fact, most fights seemed to end with the foolish person all bloodied and battered still talking hateful or opposed to the victor.

I used to say all the time, beating someone up does not change their mind. They may not be up in their opposers face but they continue their foolishness. How many times have we pulled a friend back saying, "It's not worth it". There are no truer words we could say to our friends.