Our culture is inundated with the negative news of the recession. News outlets struggle to find fresh ways to accurately describe the words “the economy sucks” each hour of the day.
The church has followed right along with the negative news. A lot of blogs have cited a report that church participation is on a steep decline. Of course, people won’t admit that there is a tie between the recession and people leaving the church. Perhaps churches should have responded to help sooner? That’s another rant for another day.
Here are three good things the recession has done for my family:
– A huge emphasis to live in the black. As I’ve documented before, we are working hard to get out of debt and build a little savings.
– A huge emphasis on what is important. Tough times lead people back to their roots and we are no different. A major focus for us has been on “cheap family fun.” We’ve kept the value of family time but re-tooled it to focus on the time and not the activity. There are lots of other areas where we are making values-based decisions as opposed to having little rhyme or reason as to why we do things.
– A huge emphasis on sustainability. Scaling things back and focusing just a tad more on thrift allows us to live within a sustainable budget. While we can’t predict the future (no one can) we can manage our house in a way that would allow us to sustain in thin times and thrive in good times.
I think these three things… live in the black, focus on your values, and practice sustainability are three things that every family, church, business, and institution should be learning during this recession. Without a doubt, these are tough times. But there is great good to come from it if we’ll learn hard lessons and apply them in the future!
Those who are hit hardest by this economy should resolve a “never again” attitude. We all made fun of our grandparents for saving everything and compulsive frugality. Who is laughing now?
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