Directive #5: Don't Spend- Invest

In our story of Janitor Bob, the wise old mentor (Bob) teaches Roger the importance of learning to focus on what is really important in business, and in life.

Roger is so consumed with spending so much time building his business (which of course will eventually fade away and no longer exist), that he is failing to invest in the most important people in his life.

Bob advises Roger on how and where to invest his time and money into things and people that are eternally important to God.

To further make my point, consider what we try to teach our children about money. If your children are anything like mine, they would prefer to spend their money on toys and candy, that will either break or be quickly consumed. They are driven by their impulses for immediate satisfaction-but that will soon no longer exist.

Do we not prefer to teach our children to INVEST their money so that it will last and provide a return over a longer period of time? Is this not how we build and run our businesses, churches, and organizations? We do our best to take our limited resources and invest them in assets and programs that will provide a long-term return on our investment.

And so it is in life as well. Bob instructs his young student on how and why he should be concerned with giving his best efforts, time, attention, focus, and even finances to causes and people that will last.

To help clarify my point, please allow me to offer a definition of these terms from a dictionary:

Invest 1. to put (money) to use, by purchase or expenditure, in something offering potential profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value. 2. to use (money), as in accumulating something: to invest large sums in books. 3. to use, give, or devote (time, talent, etc.), as for a purpose or to achieve something: He invested a lot of time in helping underprivileged children.

Spend 1. to pay out, disburse, or expend; dispose of (money, wealth, resources, etc.): resisting the temptation to spend one's money. 2. to employ (labor, thought, words, time, etc.), as on some object or in some proceeding: Don't spend much time on it. 3. to pass (time) in a particular manner, place, etc.: We spent a few days in Baltimore. 4 .to use up, consume, or exhaust: The storm had spent its fury. 5. to give (one's blood, life, etc.) for some cause. -verb (used without object) 6. to spend money, energy, time, etc. 7. Obsolete. to be consumed or exhausted.

So please allow me to encourage us all to take this directive seriously. I would like to ask that each day we stop and ask ourselves if the things that we are doing with our time, talents, and financial resources are really important in the long run.

May we always be concerned with what God says is important- people and causes that help people-and those that help draw people closer to God.

Hopefully at the end of our lives, we can look back and clearly see that we had indeed invested in things that were important - that we invested in the lives of people around us- that our lives were focused on making their lives better.

As we draw our final breath on this earth, I pray that we can all say that we have done everything we knew to do to make our lives count for God-that the world is a better place because we spent a short time in it.

Which is a good transition to our final directive- and that is "Leave A Legacy."