Jeremiah 10:12 says “God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.” I was thinking about God as creator recently and it struck me that God is a system thinker. Everything he designed—from planets to people—is made to work as part of a system. Take the human body for example. It has the skeletal, nervous, circulatory, muscular, and digestive systems to name a few. All of those separate systems are brought together to form the incredibly complex human body. If your circulatory system quit working or your skeletal system suddenly disappeared, your body couldn’t function. God designed it so that each part plays an important role.
You’re probably asking yourself “Joe, What in the world does this have to do with money?” Quite a bit, actually, if you think of your personal finances as one of the systems that make up your daily life. If your finances are a mess, will that impact other parts of your system? Absolutely. It will affect your attitude, your relationships, your actions and your opportunities. Like God, we need to be system thinkers. Too often we neglect an important area like our finances and then wonder why we find ourselves stressed, overwhelmed, arguing with our spouse, or spending too much time at work. Just like a broken transmission will affect how your car runs, problems with your budget, cash flow, debt, taxes, savings, or investing, will likely impact how your life runs.
For better or worse, your finances affect almost every other area of your life. Handle them wisely and they will help your system function properly. Handle them poorly and you can expect problems. So spend some time tuning up your finances and you will likely see that life runs much more smoothly.
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