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What Does “Personal Finance for Life in the Kingdom” Mean?

January 11, 2012 in Miscellaneous with 1 Comment

The tagline for Provident Planning used to be “Personal Finance from a Christian Perspective”. And though that was clear and got the gist of what I wanted to focus on here, it still missed something major. What makes Provident Planning different from any other Christian personal finance site?

So a while back I decided to change the tagline to the current one – “Personal Finance for Life in the Kingdom”. It’s a little more obscure, but I think it comes closer to answering that question.

My hope is to focus on personal finance in a way that starts with the understanding that we, as followers of Jesus, have our primary life in the Kingdom of God. It’s eternal life, but it’s an eternal life that we’re already living now. It doesn’t just start at death.

So anything we do has to start from that perspective – including personal finance. It’s far too easy for me to take regular, good personal finance advice and try to add a Christian spin to it. That’s generally what happens in the Christian finance realm. And while I think we mean well, we can miss the broader picture of what Jesus has called us to.

By putting the focus on personal finance as it works in our life in the Kingdom, my desire is to start from a thoroughly Kingdom-focused perspective and understand what personal finance is meant to look like there. I feel that I’ve been sidetracked in the past by starting with a “worldly” personal finance focus and then trying to understand how the Kingdom of God works in that context. Wrong approach.

So “Personal Finance for Life in the Kingdom” is supposed to mean that what you’ll find here at Provident Planning is centered around the Kingdom life.

It’s about trying to look at all aspects of personal finance in light of eternity.
It’s about trying to understand how what we’re doing now fits into the economy of God rather than our economy.
And it’s about trying to keep our heart focused on our treasures in heaven while staying free from the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things.

Now a tagline is just a tagline. It doesn’t mean much unless I stick to it. So I’m asking you all to help me keep this focus. It isn’t easy when we’re being swamped by a culture that drowns us with false ideas of “the good life” all the time. I need your help in keeping that Kingdom perspective throughout everything I write or do.

So leave a comment in a post if you think I missed something. Or just send me an email through my contact page. Walk alongside me as I walk alongside you, and let’s help each other grab hold of the prize.

Why I Named My Business (and Blog) “Provident Planning”

January 4, 2012 in Miscellaneous with 5 Comments

When I was trying to decide on a name for my business and this blog, I wanted to find something that kept God connected to our personal finances. For too long I felt like I had segregated my work from my faith. I helped people with their finances but God was hardly ever a part of the conversation.

When it came time to start my own business, I wanted to pick a name that would continually remind me that God has a very active role in our finances. I wanted a name that would point to God first and us second. I wanted a name that would integrate faith and financial planning. So I chose “Provident Planning”.

Provident

Provident points to God’s foreseeing care, guidance, protection, and provision for us. It reminds me that no matter what happens – even if all around me starts to crumble – I am still in the hands of a loving and faithful God who wants what is best for me and will provide it.

Provident emphasizes the peace and security we can have when we place all of our hope and faith in God. It carries the idea that God already knows what we need and when we need it, and He is ready and willing to supply it to us as we seek His Kingdom and His righteousness first.

The whole image of God’s providence is woven throughout Scripture in the many ways He provides for His people. He is mindful in making provision for those in need. He creates food from nothing. He sends birds and angels to minister to us. He even blesses us with rain and sunshine when we don’t deserve it at all.

And the greatest example of His foresight in providing for us is found in His Son. He made a way for us to be reconciled to Him long before we even realized our need.

Planning

Planning brings in the other side of the equation – our part. All throughout Scripture, we see a call to work diligently and use our resources prudently. Many times God’s provision required action on the part of those He was helping. They had to go do something or take a course of action that required their own effort while trusting God for the result.

Planning is not the same as worrying. In planning, we do our best to look ahead, think it out, and prepare for what is most likely. In worrying, we simply torment ourselves with anxieties and fears of the very worst. Worrying is where you’ll find a lack of trust in God.

Planning doesn’t necessitate distrusting God. The best planning happens when we do the best we can, trust the outcome to God, and rest in the assurance that this world is a perfectly safe place to be while we’re living in God’s Kingdom.

Provident Planning

I struggled for quite a while in coming up with a name, but when I put provident and planning together it just felt right. Provident Planning – it’s all about trusting in the good, beautiful, and faithful God who wants the very best for us while doing our part to use the resources He’s given us in the best ways we can.

I don’t pretend like I always remember those truths but that’s my goal. I want to live in the reality of God’s Kingdom and help others do the same – all while prudently using and caring for what He has given us.

I invite you to come along. Come and take hold of that which is truly life!

Giveaway: The Root of Riches and Crown Mvelopes Lifetime Membership!

August 1, 2011 in Miscellaneous with 0 Comments

Several weeks ago, I interviewed Chuck Bentley about his new book The Root of Riches. I really enjoyed the book and thought Chuck and I had a great conversation. I highly recommend the book for anyone looking to go beyond the right financial practices and get to the heart of what it means to follow Christ in our finances.

Crown Financial Ministries has graciously given me a copy of The Root of Riches to give away in addition to a lifetime membership for Crown Mvelopes – an online budgeting system. You can learn more about Crown Mvelopes here.

To win, all you need to do is like Provident Planning on Facebook before Friday, August 5, 2011 at 5:00 PM EDT. (Note: This is different from my previous Facebook page which was through NetworkedBlogs. So if you’re already following Provident Planning on Facebook through the NetworkedBlogs app you are eligible to enter this giveaway!)

Anyone who becomes a fan on Facebook between now and the deadline will be eligible to win. I’ll randomly select two winners – one for the book and one for the Crown Mvelopes lifetime membership. If you have a preference, let me know in the comments below.

I’ll announce the winner on Provident Planning’s Facebook page so be sure to keep an eye out for it Friday evening. If you win, make sure you get back to me so I can arrange to get you the book or membership code. If you don’t get in touch with me by Monday, August 8, I’ll select another winner. Good luck!

How to Kill Stinkbugs

June 22, 2011 in Frugality, Miscellaneous with 2 Comments

Alright, so this doesn’t have anything to do with personal finance or a Christian perspective on money. But I found it useful and thought some of you might, too. We’ve had a big problem with stinkbugs in our area lately. And after spending way too much time flushing them or sucking them up with the vacuum, Michelle and I were looking for an easy way to kill them and we found it. Here’s our secret weapon:

It’s just a spray bottle filled with some soapy water. I just put about 2 tablespoons of dish soap in the bottle and shook it up a bit. Some recipes online say to use a whole lot more than that, but I found this to be effective. No need to waste a whole bottle of dish soap on this. Then I went on a rampage killing every stinkbug in sight. It works surprisingly well for something so simple. You usually only need about three or four good, direct hits to kill the stinkbug.

Obviously, this has no residual effect and will not prevent future stinkbugs from entering your house. But it’s a convenient way to kill the varmints without touching them and getting the stink all over your fingers. (Even using a tissue or some toilet paper to grab them doesn’t keep the smell off.) After they’re dead, you can just vacuum them up or gather by hand. As a plus, you don’t have to worry about kids being around when you’re spraying it. Well, as long as you don’t spray them in the eyes…

Don’t believe it’s that easy? Here’s a short video of me killing a couple stinkbugs with the solution. I went a little overboard on spraying them because I was trying to get quick results for the video, but you can confidently spray them a few times and move on. They’ll die within a couple minutes.

Happy stinkbug hunting!

Back from a Break

June 20, 2011 in Miscellaneous with 4 Comments

Are you all still there?! It’s been a while since my last post.

After not writing for almost six months, I’m ready to get back to it. I stopped writing for a while as I was taking on new responsibilities at church. Now that I’ve had time to settle in a bit, I’ll be writing here on Provident Planning again.

I also needed a break because I was struggling with what I wanted to do with the content on here. I was getting distracted with things that don’t really matter and began to emulate many of the other personal finance blogs out there. I don’t want to do that. I want to keep the focus here on following Jesus in our finances – whatever that may cost. But I also want to help people with the practical side of things.

So I won’t be writing as much as I used to. I want to create higher quality articles – not more articles. Right now the plan is to have two posts a week published on Mondays and Wednesdays. I may occasionally post a short article or some links on Fridays, but I’m not making any guarantees there.

I’ll be balancing the articles between the strictly spiritual side of things and the practical (how to, information, general PF type of articles). However, I will try to incorporate a Christian perspective in everything when it fits. It’s sort of difficult to do that in a post that’s simply explaining what a Roth IRA is, but it’s certainly possible when talking about retirement planning. My hope is that this will meet both sides of my goal – looking at how to follow Jesus in our finances but also providing helpful resources to apply it to our financial decisions.

Thanks for hanging in there during this break and for all your support. Many of you have encouraged me to get back into writing and that has helped motivate me to start again. I’m looking forward to learning and growing with you. God’s blessings to all of you as you seek Him!

I’m in Free Money Finance’s March Money Madness – Round 2, Game 2!

February 23, 2011 in Miscellaneous with 2 Comments

For the last few years, Free Money Finance has held a contest called March Money Madness (works like the college basketball competition). It gives bloggers a chance to highlight their best posts and see how they stack up to others. Additionally, FMF donates money to a charity of the blogger’s choice for the top 4 winners – $500 for 1st place, $300 for 2nd, and $100 each for 3rd and 4th.

I’m playing for 50% to HOPE International and 50% to Mennonite Central Committee (or 100% to MCC if FMF doesn’t want to split the donations).

Thanks to your help in Round 1, I’ve made it to Round 2! This week I’m in Game 2 with “The Save 10% for Retirement Rule Is Stupid“, and I’m up against Craig at Money Help for Christians. He’s a good friend of mine and a great writer, so I’ll be happy either way. But if you’d like to support me, leave a comment on today’s March Money Madness post saying “Game 2: Stupid”. Thanks for your support!

I’m in Free Money Finance’s March Money Madness – Game 10!

January 26, 2011 in Miscellaneous with 0 Comments

Last week I was in Free Money Finance’s March Money Madness for Game 4. Thanks to you all, I won and will be going on to the second round for that post.

But I was lucky enough to get two posts in this year’s competition, so I’ve got a second article in today’s Game 10. The article is called “Wake Up from the American Dream“. It’s not looking too well for me right now, so I could really use your help. All you have to do is leave a comment on today’s post saying “Game 10: Dream”. (You can vote for Game 9 while you’re at it if you want to.)

FMF donates money to a charity of the blogger’s choice for the top 4 winners – $500 for 1st place, $300 for 2nd, and $100 each for 3rd and 4th. I’m playing for 50% to HOPE International and 50% to Mennonite Central Committee (or 100% to MCC if FMF doesn’t want to split the donations). Having two posts go on to the next round will really help the chances of seeing these charities get a donation.

So if you can take just a minute to go vote by leaving a comment that says “Game 10: Dream”, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks for your support!

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