“And if you are not faithful with other people’s money, why should you be trusted with money of your own?”

It’s about this time of the year that those on an annual fiscal calendar year start looking at how the first quarter shaped up and start thinking about what changes in the budget should happen. If an organization is on a July fiscal year then full budget planning for next year is taking place and decisions are being made as to what department gets funded more fully than others. The doling out game starts and decisions are made. Sometimes those decisions are obvious and clear, but at other times it’s ambiguous and opaque. It actually is quite simple in how these decisions are made. When the CEO/CFO, or whoever is in charge of the budget allocations, looks back over the past year, she/he looks to see who has done the most with what was given to them in the past and then starts from there. It’s called putting good money after good. It doesn’t make much sense to allocate more budget to those who didn’t do much, or anything, with their past allotments. To reward poor past budget management would be putting good money after bad. If an area of the company needs to be invested in, and their is not someone at the head of that area that is trusted to do well with the finances, then likely that person gets changed out before more dollars will be given to them. So, it becomes important to know and realize that past budget performance is the best predictor of future budget trends.

Faithfulness with money, especially other people’s money, which is what most of us are managing when we work for companies, is a strong indicator to others of the character that we bring forward into the world. It is hard to trust anyone who we see cutting corners or who are not ensuring that the money flows in the right direction. I have seen more than one person risk or lose a career over a few dollars that they decided to mismanage. Regardless of how well-liked or well-respected, the mismanagement of finances can bring someone down fast. If we are to be the shining example that Christ desires us to be, then this is an area that we must also be aware of and manage well. Shortcuts, corner-cutting, fudging or trying to hide an expense are not examples of faithfulness, nor examples of the One who we follow. Today let us pray that we are showing faithfulness in all that we do.

Reference: Luke 16:12 (New Living Testament)