Making the Best of a Bad Decision by Lutzer Erwin W

Author:Lutzer, Erwin W.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Life / Personal Growth, RELIGION / Christianity / Christian Life
ISBN: 9781414360829
Publisher: Tyndale House (eBook)
Published: 2011-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

Bad investments often lead to bad marriages!

Facing the Issues

Recently I spoke to a real estate agent who said that not a week goes by but that she counsels people who are losing their homes to foreclosure. Often they are elderly couples who have no hope of recouping their losses. Young couples, awash with debt, are filing bankruptcy. The optimism of years gone by has given way to anxiety, pessimism, and despair. Instead of coming together, many families are falling apart, with anger toward our government, finger-pointing at one another, and bankruptcies.

The Need for Family

Unfortunately, at a time when families should be pulling together, they are being torn apart by circumstances—often involving financial pressures. No matter how much a couple loves one another or how hardworking people might be, there are times when they overextend their spending or fall for a get-rich-quick scheme. One person who had made his share of bad investments was convinced that if he were to buy a cemetery, people would stop dying! Financial stress can drive even the most committed Christian into turmoil. And all too often, this turmoil results in divorce.

The first step toward making the best of a bad financial decision is to truthfully acknowledge the past. If there is need for forgiveness, it must be requested and granted. The two stories at the beginning of this chapter represent tens of thousands of people who did not intend to have their investments go sour. They did what they did because they firmly believed they would reap dividends, no matter how unwise the investment might look in retrospect. Sure, they may not have read the fine print; yes, they may have acted foolishly, but we’ve all been there at one time or another. These investors must forgive themselves and seek their spouse’s forgiveness. Self-justification must end and honesty must prevail. If you have squandered some of your savings, admit it. If you ignored wise counsel, admit it. If you blew an opportunity to have invested differently, acknowledge that as well.

Only an attitude of honesty and confession can lay the foundation for recovery and restoration—not only of lost finances, but also of ruptured relationships. Bad financial decisions will tear a family apart only if the past is not honestly acknowledged, forgiveness is stubbornly withheld, and nothing is learned from the failure. Both the wise and the foolish make mistakes, but the wise person will learn from them and the foolish keep repeating their foolishness.

Along with acknowledgment and reconciliation of the past, there must also be a change in attitude. Chuck Swindoll has concluded that we shouldn’t waste our time “concentrating and fretting over the things that can’t be changed.” Instead, we should “turn [our] energy to keeping the right attitude. Those things we can’t do anything about shouldn’t even come up in our minds.”11 Despite the failures of the past, we must begin to look at life both optimistically and realistically.

That isn’t to say it’s going to be easy. You might have to give up all that you own, including your car, your house, and that boat, but you can still count your blessings.

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