Three Ways to Parent Your Money… September 11, 2014

Jonathots Daily Blog

(2349)

Money is much like the disgruntled, snotty teenager who decides to get even with you by running away from home because you told him or her that the pair of shoes the young’un desires will have to be put off until the next paycheck.

Also, money will embarrass by going out during this little misadventure and humiliate you, overindulging and even getting in trouble with the law.

What I’m saying in a nutshell is that money needs parenting. Without parenting, it begins to run your household with its bad attitudes, making you cringe in the corner of your bedroom, fearing a knock on the door.

So let me offer three ways to parent your money, making sure that you are still in charge:

1. Always be prepared to give an honest report.

Not only does money fail to grow on trees, but it never sprouts through lies. Pretending you’re something you aren’t is the quickest way to poverty. Failing to recognize the signs of difficulty is not optimism, it’s just stupidity with a smile on its face.

The best way to get in control of your finance and welcome money into your life is to assess your situation without becoming giddy with potential or suicidal with the facts.

2. An organized plan.

Give yourself the greatest gift you can–stop insisting that you’re not an organized person. It’s like taking a dagger and sticking it in your heart and reaching for the band-aids. Life without organization, a plan and clarity to your actions is like walking on the edge of a cliff blindfolded. It is much easier to be organized than it is to put out the brush fires ignited by too many spontaneous choices.

3. A slower pace.

It is a lie that the race goes to the swiftest. It doesn’t. The most important attribute in success is endurance, followed closely by foresight.

Slow down.

If you need five hundred dollars by the end of the month, try to make fifty dollars by the end of the week and see where it takes you.

Life is a much better teacher than opinion. So learn from experience.

And to do so, slow yourself down so you can enjoy the scenery and see the berries hanging from the trees as you go by, and never be hungry.

Just like a teenager, money will try to run your life if you don’t develop a sense of humor and know that you are in charge.

Teenagers don’t have to be insufferable brats. But to stop them, just like with money, you have to make it clear who’s boss.

 

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity

 

The Sermon on the Mount in music and story. Click the mountain!

 

Click here to get info on the “Gospel According to Common Sense” Tour

Please contact Jonathan’s agent, Jackie Barnett, at (615) 481-1474, for information about scheduling SpiriTed in 2014.

Click here to listen to Spirited music

Finding a Message in a World aTwitter Act I – Character… December 11, 2012

(1,726)

The difficulty in not believing in Santa Claus is that we end up having to buy all the presents, wrap them and retrieve the credit card bills at the end of the month. A lack of faith in a North Pole friend can very well close the door on assistance–even from those around us who get caught up in the spirit.

Now, I had the distinct pleasure of raising six sons. One is a film-maker, another is a sound technician and entrepreneur. The third fellow is a junior executive at an insurance company and an aspiring actor. Son four is also a sound technician and plays bass guitar in a blues band. How about number five? He is another filmmaker, presently living in China. And my sixth fine young man is a drummer who would love to start a great rock and roll band.

Even though all six of these fellows have my love, they also occasionally have my intrusion into their lives as I challenge them to find a message–a core, if you will–a bit of character that forms their character and determines the character of their endeavors.

Walking around in today’s world without possessing a guiding message in your soul is similar to arriving at an Arabian market, not knowing the language, starving to death and ending up giving away everything you have for a handful of dates. The world will rob you of your soul if you’re willing to give it your heart–and where your treasure is, your heart will be also.

What is our treasure? It is the compass of a message that directs our actions and draws lines in the sand when deception is wearing the mask of compromise.

I ask all six of my sons what I ask you today. What is your message? Don’t tell me about your faith. Possessing a faith is not pursuing a message. Being conservative and liberal is not a message. Those are profiles. Even claiming to be a Christian is not a message, because somewhere along the line in every religion, the passion of the original proclaimer has been lost in a flurry of business meetings and spreadsheets.

Your message is the guiding hope of how you conduct your life–no matter what or no matter who disagrees. To exist without that is not only dangerous, but can be lethal when the world around you is “aTwitter,” determined to race to the edge of the cliff, having never tested their brakes.

I’d like to take the next few days to discuss the process of finding a message. Because here is the order:

• You find your message first.
• Then you seek out those who are in fellowship with your purposes.
• If there is a God available who touts your values, then He or She is worthy of worship.
• And finally, you go out and change the world, using your message in truth, with love.

Don’t try to find God  before you find your message, because religion will immediately demand that you blindly accept principles that are unnecessary for preservation.

I have found my message. NoOne is better than anyone else.” My next step? To discover if anyone or any God anywhere … says amen.

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity