Every family I know seems to be feeling financially stretched at the moment. Our income just doesn’t seem to go as far as it used to. Many families are living pay cheque to pay cheque, with little left over at the end of the month. We’re taking on extra work; we’re selling our second cars; we’re eating less meat. We’re always trying to ‘get ahead’ and put something away for a rainy day. But the money just seems to evaporate.
It’s like pouring water into a dry well. We’re trying and trying to fill it up. But the earth is so parched, it just soaks the water up and we’re running on empty again.
As Christians, we trust in God to provide for us. We believe in the one who said:
‘ … do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?’ (Matthew 6:25–26)
As Christians, we pray each day for God to ‘give us today our daily bread’ (Matthew 6:11)—and he always does! But he rarely seems to give us a whole month’s provision to ‘store away’ in advance.
Then kids come along
Before having children, this kind of living by faith day-to-day can seem like an adventure. We pray and trust … and then we see God provide what we need just in the nick of time. But once we have children depending on us, having a near-empty bank account or fridge is just plain stressful. We can feel like we’re failing at ‘adulting’.
Those of us who have ‘baby boomer’ parents see them living very comfortably. They’ve worked in steady jobs and retired with a healthy amount of superannuation. They own houses, caravans, investment properties and can afford to go travelling. They seem to have enough left over to help us out when we need it.
But when we look at our own financial situation, we can start to wonder if we will ever build up any kind of inheritance to hand over to our own children—we’re struggling just to afford to live. We can start to feel guilty and afraid that perhaps we won’t have much material wealth to pass on to the next generation.
