It’s not easy today to maintain the beauty and purity of our “Holy Temples” in a world filled with Scripture-opposed values and behaviors... especially when it comes to money and possessions.

But when we separate ourselves from the world’s obsessions with money and things, we set a finer example to others and can soon find ourselves becoming more attractive and respected. It’s a “curb appeal” worth striving for.

The way we handle and behave with our money is a billboard that puts our character, self-image, emotions and motivations on public display.

Ask yourself what kind of example with your money and possessions you’re setting for others? What do you want your money to say about you?  Are you generous or greedy? Humble or proud? Careful or careless? Courageous or weak? Peaceful or insecure?

Our money behaviors can help us take a good look at ourselves, face up to our emotional flaws about money and decide what kind of rehabbing and beautification “our Holy Temple ” may need to raise its curb appeal to those around us.
 
This blog post will help you “beautify your Temple” by side-stepping today’s many emotional money traps… those subtle and stealthy lures that cause many of us to drown ourselves in debt, delay our retirement goals, work longer at jobs we hate, tap our investment assets to make ends meet, or have to send our child to a lesser college than they deserve. It can help you make wiser financial decisions, cut down your stress and live a more peaceful life.

Taking Back Control

The power that money has over us is created by us alone. And if we ever want to achieve a true state of financial peace, we must take that power back. We must begin to better control our money instead of allowing it to control us.

But the choices between spending or saving are an ongoing battlefield for many of us. “Heaven forbid,” some may say, “that I’m seen driving an SUV more than three years old, owning ten-year old dated furniture, or losing step with those Jones up the street.” With every latest and greatest creature comfort and status symbol tugging and pulling at their emotional weak spots, it’s a huge challenge to stay on track toward building a solid financial foundation for ourselves and our loved ones.

But despite that challenge, there’s much we can do to pave our way to a brighter financial future with the income, skills and chutzpa we have within ourselves right now.

Some of the most admirable people in our country today are those with minimal education and resources who work two and three jobs to feed their kids and keep them in a safe living environment. And we can all learn some lessons about financial creativity from these folks.

Addicted to Debt

One of the biggest financial red flags that cause people to get into trouble is simply our modern-day American culture… a culture that promotes the love of money and often belittles those who don’t jump into the game.

It causes us to become victims of “Lifestyle Creep”… an epidemic that pressures many Americans to focus on looking rich today, at the expense of actually being rich tomorrow.

The Way Out

In an age where everyone wants a piece of your wallet, the best defense is simply more wisdom and discernment. And we need to pray for it as Solomon did. Of course, we know what Solomon received in return for all His praying. He got it all... wisdom and riches to boot.

Not that we can be assured of similar rewards, but I do believe that the more we pray for things in right order, the more we please our God. As James 1:5 says, If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives all generously and ungrudgingly.

The Problem with Financial Goals

When our personal goals become purely financial, we get in trouble. When our goals are to HAVE rather than to DO and BE, we never reach that coveted state of financial contentment. And people who spend their lives striving for financial status and power seldom experience any real contentment because they squelch any hopes of it with their shallow material pleasures.

Financial contentment is about being honest with ourselves about who we are and what we want to be and do… not what we want to have. It’s a state we arrive at when we’ve matured beyond the hollow aspirations of financial status and power. It’s a condition we create for ourselves so we can live and seek out more meaningful and selfless purposes for our lives.

When we’re financially content, we can immunize ourselves from the world’s material values. We become more frugal and better stewards with more of an anti-waste attitude… an attitude of preservation. And once this change starts to take place within us, our outer image and appearance... our curb appeal, begins to blossom.

So in our modern day self-acquisitive culture that favors love of money and spending over saving and investing, we need to embrace and practice three important principals:

• Wisdom… In a business climate where everyone’s after your wallet, be locked and loaded every day with an arsenal of wisdom to survive, and then lay the groundwork for your financial progress.

 

• Courage… to stand up and live against the grain of a society that bases equality on material wealth

 

• Commitment…to adopt and maintain habits of faithful stewardship and generosity with GOD'S money.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Stupid.
 
When we’re flush, it’s easy to lose respect for our money and the wisdom we may have gained. As Psalm 49: 20 says, For in all their riches, if mortals do not have wisdom, they perish like beasts.

It’s also easy to pat ourselves on back after we achieve some financial success. But we must never forget where our abilities came from to make that success. Deuteronomy 8:18 reminds us, Remember, it’s the Lord, your God, who gives you the power to acquire wealth.

Silo Fillers

I laugh at people who pat themselves one back when they boast about what they’ll leave kids after their death, often when those kids would benefit more by getting some of their inheritance now while they’re struggling to raise their families.

But grandpa’s fear of not having enough for himself puts a quick end to that idea. “Don’t mess with my silo while I’m alive. I’ll keep it topped off for now, but you can dip into it all you want after I check out.”

Wise in their own eyes, but stupid in God’s eyes just like the rich fool in Luke 12: 16-21 who built bigger barns to store up his goods so he could eat, drink and be merry for his many expected years ahead, only to have his life taken that night. He was storing treasures in the wrong silo... on earth instead of in heaven.

The reality is that any money we store up in our little “silos on earth” isn’t really ours... it’s HIS. And this attitude of acceptance is a key ingredient to raising our Holy Temple ’s curb appeal.

Make the Commitment

If we ever want to get off the world’s money merry-go-round, we must jump off on our own because it's never going to stop for us. That jump may hurt for a while until the wounds of abstinence heal. But as new habits and disciplines form, we can begin to develop more self-confidence based on who we are and not how we falsely display ourselves... a genuine and deeper “curb appeal” that no 6,000 square foot mini-mansion can ever match.

It’s not easy to do at first, but the pain of doing it today will be much lighter on us than the pain tomorrow of not doing it.