Category: Money

By Tim Howington

Chapter Two

 Managing our Minds in Tough Financial Times

I remember when my son studied about Johnny Appleseed in his first grade history class. Some think that Johnny was a fabled character who embodies the generous spirit of America. But, he was a real person. He was an entrepreneur type who loved his apple trees and made it his mission to plant nurseries of apple trees all over his part of the country. By the time he got through there were apple orchards all over the place. Johnny was a planter. And he spent his time and effort planting seeds that would blossom into trees that would provide sustenance to millions. Our topic in this chapter is not about agriculture, but is neurological in nature. The question today is what kinds of seeds are you planting in your mind? What kinds of thoughts are consuming your days? There is a battle going on for the mind and it is being lost at the seed level. We are planting the wrong kind of seeds and therefore we are growing the wrong kind of trees.

This is really true when it comes to managing our minds during tough financial times. The key to winning the battle for the mind has to do with what we allow our minds to focus on. If we focus on what we do not have, then we will plant seeds of anxiety that will grow into mind-trees of hopelessness. If we focus on what God is able to do, then our minds will grow beautiful orchards of contentment. Now I know that our thoughts may not pay the light bill.  But thinking about the right things keeps our hearts with the right perspective, which affects our attitudes, which allows us to struggle well in times of adversity.

What should we be thinking about?  Continue reading “Chapter Two- Managing our Minds in Tough Financial Times” →

by Tim Howington

Chapter One

 Managing Yourself When There is No Money to Manage

 I attended a college meeting once where the speaker asked for a couple of volunteers from the audience to come and illustrate a point he was making.  He chose a big burly football player and a petite cheerleader type gal.  He had a large clear pitcher of water, filled to the rim.  He handed this to the cheerleader and told her that her task was to keep the water from spilling out of the pitcher.  He then told the football player that his task was to make her spill the water.  Well, as you can guess the football player was successful. The speaker then turned to the audience and asked “why did water spill out of the pitcher?”  The audience was split: some said it was her fault; some said it was his.  Then the speaker made a profound statement that I have never forgotten.  He said, “Water spilled out of the pitcher because water was in the pitcher.”  He then went on to explain that life will bump us from time to time and whatever is in our hearts will spill out. Continue reading “Chapter One- Managing Yourself When There is No Money to Manage” →

by Tim Howington

This book is the by-product of a painful process of financial anxiety over about a 12 month period where the Lord sustained my family by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin.  We paid every bill, ate every meal, and never lost our housing, transportation or the clothes on our back.  So, by those standards we were very blessed, and to some degree, we learned to be content.

But, every night I prayed diligently for the Lord to intervene in our lives.  Every day I worked hard to secure the funds we needed to survive.  And while I desperately wanted the “Lord’s will” to be financial stability in my family’s life, I knew that there was something else going on that was bigger than just me paying bills on time.  The Lord was stripping me of my pride and my independence.  The Lord was teaching me about how to manage my spirit when there was no money (little money) to manage.  The Lord was connecting me to the needs of families all around me who are living paycheck to paycheck and asking themselves if God can be trusted. Continue reading “How to Manage Yourself When There is No Money to Manage – Intro” →