MERRY STRESSMAS #2 - MONEY
MERRY STRESSMAS SERIES
What stresses you out during the Christmas season? Maybe it is schedules, budgets and/or toxic interpersonal situations? What turns the celebration of Christ into a meltdown of stress? The good news is that there tools, principles and wisdom to rise above these situations. When we approach stress with a victim’s mentality we are vulnerable to biological, mental and relational viruses. However, when we approach stress as a challenge to overcome, we enter with the health of a Jesus-disciple. Join us for a new series at LifePointe called, MERRY STRESSMAS, DON’T LET THE GRINCH STEAL CHRISTMAS. Discover with us how to reach the other side of the holidays being both healthy, happy and holy!
TODAY - OVERCOMING MONEY-STRESSORS
EPHESIANS 5:15-17 NKJV See then that you walk CIRCUMSPECTLY, not as fools but as WISE, 16 redeeming the TIME, because the days are EVIL. 17 Therefore do not be UNWISE, but understand what the WILL of the Lord [is].
- CIRCUMSPECTLY (GR – exactly, accurately and diligently)
- EVIL (GR – full of labors, annoyances and hardships; pressed and harassed)
- UNWISE (GR – without reflection; acting rashly)
- WILL (GR – commands, precepts and pleasures of; i.e. the flux capacitor)
MONEY - WHERE THE STRUGGLE IS…
- Social (imposed) expectations
- Finding “the right presents” for people that it is hard to get for
- Commitments
- Competition (create a “better” Christmas experience)
- Materialism (over running budgets)
- Make up relational wounds with presents (kids, spouses and parents)
- Lack of planning (triggering self-talk “I don’t even know how…”)
- Medicating the stress with alcohol, isolation and more
- Stress multiplied by family members being hyper-stressed
PRINCIPLES TO MANAGE YOUR MONEY
This is not a DOCTRINE series, but a WISDOM series.
- Identify what you want at the end of the holidays (what role will gifts play?)
- Beware of the allure of Mammon (evil spirit that rests on money)
- Nurture a healthy relationship towards money by tithing (10% giving)
- Money decisions are actually spiritual decisions
- Holistic living requires a plan, including a money-plan
- Every decision to spend money should be a decision you are not going to spend on something else
- Unhealthy management of resources contributes to destructive self-talk
- Over-spending is a fear based compulsion
- High net worth doesn’t insure a life of intimacy
- There is a clear connection between a healthy self-image and a heart that tithes (10% giving)
- A budget is not related to paying off past stuff, but is forward thinking in preparation for the future
- More money is not a prerequisite to making a spending plan
- Who is RICH? If you make more than $25,000 household income each year, you are in the top 10% of wage earners in the world. If you make more than $50,000, you are in the top 1%. Even the lessor resourced American’s are RICH on the world stage.
- If you can’t live on 90% of your income, you are already in an alarming situation
- A Christmas budget begins with a right household budget
- The average family Christmas budget is 1.6% of the annual household income
- To manage present stress become equally aggressive in soothing exercises
- Differentiate yourself from the stress; you are not the stress, you are you managing stress
- The antidote to fear and stress is intimacy and connection
- To disrupt the stress of the season serve someone less fortunate than you (like the homeless) to recalibrate perspective
CALL TO ACTION
Out of everything we talked about today,
what is your ONE NEXT STEP that you need to take?
Pull out your PHONE and EMAIL it to yourself RIGHT NOW.
Some Considerations:
- Aggressively begin soothing exercises
- Invite Family/Friends into your stress
- Serve the less fortunate
- Create a budget (before 2018)
- Go to a Financial Peace Seminar
- Begin tithing (10%)
- Reduce debt by selling something
- Get a second job (income stream)