Happy Wednesday!

Made a sloppy financial decision yesterday. Got caught up in the moment on EBAY… became the highest bidder on a gift I wanted to purchase for a very dear friend… and then everyone else STOPPED BIDDING! For about two hours, I was PRAYING for another bidder… and nothing but SILENCE! Then I got the dreaded email… congratulations Chuck Balsamo, YOU’RE A WINNER! Aggghhh!

Oh well, my FRIEND will be so happy! I just don’t feel like I got much of a bargain… but the gift will send a message of LOVE to a very special person! Don’t ask for any more details… it’s a surprise. Just pray for God to visit me with an unexpected financial blessing over the next few days! lol

While I’m on the subject… let’s talk about recession proofing our finances. Here we are in the opening decade of this twenty-first century… and everyone seems to be feeling the PRESSURE of this uncertain economy. Am I right? Especially over the past six months, even the wisest and wealthiest folks in our land have begun to whimper. Though there is an obvious degree of pain… history has proven time and time again… that tomorrows millionaires and billionaires are forged in times like these!

So, instead of laying on the couch in a dark room, with a box of tissues and a heaping bowl of ice cream… let’s decide NOW, that we are going to get up off the couch, blow our nose one last time, step away from the ice cream… and figure out how to THRIVE THIS RECESSION! Besides being a good little Christian and praying and believing that God will come through… here are a few practical tips for these uncertain times.

11 Thoughts 4 Thriving a Recession

1. Work Your Life Plan: for more on this, go to my 9 Equities Handout! Create a life plan, revise your life plan, review your life plan every week… stick to your life plan!
2. Maintain Your Spiritual Routines: keep reading your Bible, pray and worship daily, stay in church, serve in your church, share your faith with others… keep your spiritual fire burning bright!
3. Think and Speak Victory: create a new set of daily affirmations and read the list out loud, every morning… Ex: “I am focused and passionate! My life is blessed and I am a blessing! I have more than enough time, talents, and resources to do everything God is calling me to do! The whole universe is conspiring in my favor! When problems arise, an endless well of solutions rise up within me… I am an overcomer!”
4. Give & Keep Giving: hoarding will stop up the flow of GODS favor and blessing… the more your hoard, the broker you will become… so stay in FAITH and keep planting your finances into Gods eternal purposes!
5. Trim the Fat: get rid of the clutter… have a yard sale or an ebay sale, cancel unproductive subscriptions, cut out unproductive hobbies, sell the extra vehicle… reduce and simplify for greater effectiveness!
6. Create Multiple Streams of Income: do something profitable with your free time… be creative, include your whole family… flip houses, detail cars, mow lawns, rake leaves, start up a creative new business!
7. Pray and Trust God: Proverbs 3:9-10 Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the FIRST-FRUITS of all your crops; THEN your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine!
8. Develop an Attitude of Gratitude: thank God for what you HAVE instead of grumbling over what you lack! Believe this: For every ONE thing going wrong, there are TEN things going right! When we thank God for the little things, he ALWAYS multiplies our little until it is MORE THAN ENOUGH!
9. Spend Time with Movers & Shakers: tough times have a way of producing cynical, negative, grouchy, depressed, burnt out kinds of people… so beware of the bottom dwellers. Help when you can, guarding your own heart by hanging with the movers and the shakers of your circle!
10. Have FUN: don’t allow weeds of stress to grow up in your garden of blessings! Surround yourself with happy people, do happy things, walk, run, hike, rest, laugh out loud, sing, dance, celebrate everything good, try something NEW each and every week!
11. Dream Without Limits: dream as if you father really is the GOD OF THIS UNIVERSE and ANYTHING… yes, ANYTHING is possible for them that BELIEVE!

Maybe these thoughts will be like a hand reached down to some battered person today! As I finish this blog, my heart is filled with the grief of so many… and I am PRAYING right now, like there is no tomorrow… that TODAY will be the first day of your NEW START! Let go of the pain… read and re-read this list until HOPE returns and a VERY BRIGHT LIGHT is seen at the end of your tunnel!

I listed the first 11 thoughts that came to my heart concerning this subject… bet you guys can think of twenty more! Please share your ideas and help your fellow bloggers THRIVE A RECESSION! I hope todays blog adds TREMENDOUS VALUE to your amazing lives… have a super day everyone! We love you all…