MAKE YOUR OWN WEALTH 4

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

It is not a sin to engage in an economic activity. An economic activity is an activity which allows you to trade your God given economic resources for either money or other economic resources such as real estate, gold, silver, stocks in corporations and whatever else you desire.

The Biblical Solomon traded his God given wisdom for gold, silver and other resources. He also traded in horses and chariots within his geographical region and controlled a monopoly of the trade. Together with King Hiram of Tyre, they traded in gold, silver, spices and whatever else could be sourced from far away lands; deploying merchant ships and seasoned sailors who understood the seas and the trade.  Being a king did not stop him from engaging in economic activities.

The virtuous woman of Proverbs Chapter 31 verses 10 to 31 was a wonderful wife, a great mother and a very successful manager of a home; in point of fact, a role model for many generations; yet she engaged in economic activities. She turned a regular domestic activity engaged in by nearly every woman of her time into a very profitable economic activity which generated revenue for the purchase of a field to plant a vineyard, another economic activity which would lead to yet another economic activity. She was a productively busy woman, not an idle moment in unproductive activities and relationships. Every second translated into productive fruitful marital, parental, spiritual, mental, physical, economic and financial activities.

Beloved, there is really no excuse for refusing to engage in an economic activity. You cannot be busier or more saddled with family or community obligations than the virtuous woman. All you need do is to organize your time and activities as well as your relationships so that you have ample time to engage in economic activities.

Significantly and this is quite instructive; she worked from home and outsourced the rest -  getting her supplies from afar; and the management of the vineyard. However, she supervised every one of the activities by paying attention to details. You can do so and even more if you would humbly ask God for the wisdom to do so.

How to Correct Negative Financial Behaviors 4

 Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Start Walking

Beloved, it is high time you learnt some life lessons from the prodigal son who frittered his inheritance on riotous living. Rather than wait for the demise of his father to receive his inheritance, he requested the inheritance from his father and the moment he received it; huge sums of money he never labored for; he traveled to a city or town where no one would supervise him and went on a binge with like minded people. They painted that city or town red with wild parties and heavy drinking at his expense – again recall that he did not labor for the money so he probably had no idea that he was frittering the money? Why? Unknown to him, financial resources multiply and compound when they are invested in productive economic activities and not wild parties and heavy drinking.

Soon, surprisingly quite soon, they stopped painting the town red because their wild parties and heavy drinking suddenly came to an end; not because they got tired of such revelry but because the prodigal son no longer had the financial muscles to fund the parties and drinks. He was left in the lurch as his waste partners left him to seek other providers of such revelry. Fortunately for the prodigal son, he had nowhere to go.

Penniless and hungry, he sought employment in a piggery but his income was not even a living wage and he came close to eating the pods he fed the pigs. That was when he came to his senses – what exactly was he doing in a place like that? How did he end up like that – someone who had not really labored; who had the best life had to offer; my oh my, it was time to retrace his steps home and offer to work in his father’s farm. After all, his father’s employees earned good salaries and fed well. He opted to return home and was restored to his former position. He did not even have to labor.