Growth Part 2 of Part 2

The parable of the Shrewd Manager was a scripture that I went back to time and time again in 2025. Did you know is some translations it is called, The Parable of the Dishonest Manager? I was trying to understand why a cheater was being praised. First, I thought about it from a business angle. Owners offer discounts and specials to help stimulate growth all the time. What if all the people who were in debt, in the parable were just making minimum payments or no payments? Maybe the whole operation was stagnant. Although the manager was motivated by his personal needs, it probably was also a shrewd business move. I started thinking that the individuals who were relieved of some of their debt, probably in gratitude and with new hope, made greater efforts to pay off the remaining debt. This was a theory that made a little sense to me.

A few months later I was with some girlfriends from my college days. One of the girls was not awesome at money management. She only ever made minimum payments on her school loans. She had also changed her educational path a couple of times which resulted in some hefty debt. A few times over the years she actually just didn’t make any payments. Funny thing about student loans, they will just stick with you, they do not just go away. She tells me at this little get together that during COVID the government gave her some debt relief. She was so encouraged by this that she started to make bigger payments and created a plan to get it totally paid off. She was so happy to tell me it was finally going to be finished. I giggled. I told her she had affirmed a theory for me.

I also did a lot of self reflection on how I manage my finances. If my kids have a need or something “needs” done we always seem to find a way to make it happen. However, if I asked myself if I had money to give to the church I’d probably think I didn’t have enough to give away. Acknowledging that bothered me. In the past Mountain Man and I gave weekly to the church without much thought. It was just what we did but some how it wasn’t what we were still doing. One morning during coffee and a good conversation we decided to commit to regular giving again.

Almost instantly I could see and feel small but positive changes. It was encouraging and if I am being honest, it was fun. One story I will share happened in December. Mountain Man came into our room rummaging through the stash of Christmas gifts in the closet. He explained that Amazon sent him a notice that one of the gifts had been returned and that we would receive a refund. He was happy to find the item, he had no intention of returning it. Our assumption was this was some sort of new scam. Our thought was you click on the email or the link and it confirms your credit card number and then WHAM they make charges to the credit card. A few days later we get another email about another item returned and refund pending. We ignored it, we were not going to fall for the scam. When Danger and Hawkeyes heard us talking about this they kind of laughed us. They were like, “mom, scammers don’t give you money back” I told them we hadn’t actually got money back…..because it is a scam. That Sunday morning five more refund notices. I felt a little panicky, they were really trying to get us. Mountain Man said this had gone on too long and he was going to call Amazon. I took a look at the credit card, seven refunds were processed. I broke a sweat….oh no they have our credit card number. Again, the children pointed out the obvious piece. They gave us a refund; they were not adding charges. I went to church and Mountain Man made some calls. The end of the story is this, Amazon apologized for causing us stress and thanked us for our honesty. It was an error on their end. We could keep the items and the refunds….and they were very sorry.  I couldn’t make this stuff up.

Maybe the words I should focus on are the ones that are easier for me to understand. “Whoever is faithful in a very little is also in much……. You can not serve God and wealth” In my little ways I can be faithful. I do this in trust of the one I serve.

J – The One Jesus Loves