I listened to an executive say that when she evaluates whether or not a part of her organization is committed to their strategic plan or mission, she can tell by how the unit spends its discretionary funds.  If those dollars are invested or spent on things that support the mission, then she will be open to increasing funding for those things that are being requested.  But, if those discretionary funds are being spent on other things that aren’t on the strategic roadmap, then she steps back and questions whether or not the unit is focused on the right things and following through.  Thus, those new requests get scrutinized and put on hold until she figures out what is really going on.  Anyone who has some discretionary funds should put themselves through this same exercise.  We can usually tell what is important to us (the honest truth) by how we spend our time and money, so if discretionary dollars are being spent on things that aren’t aligned with where we say we are going, then we aren’t being honest with ourselves on what is really important.

The same can be said about how spend our discretionary income.  Are we putting those dollars against things that are healthy for us spiritually?  We may not even be thinking or cognizant of the impact that these expenditures are having on our alignment with Christ. If we are spending on things that take us away from Christ or feed those things that are of the world where we are susceptible to being overtaken with their worldly importance.  Jesus was given the opportunity to have all the things of the world that He wanted.  He knew better.  Only we personally can know what those things are that could be or are barriers in our relationship with Him, but taking a quick look over the credit card statements or the check book could reveal some interesting insights.

Reference:  Luke 4:5 (New Living Translation)