More pieces means bigger bubble!
As a kid one of my biggest pleasures was penny candy. We would go down to the 5&10 store and get as many pieces as we had money. Finding pop bottles and returning them in for the 2 cents deposit made our day! Bazooka Bubble gum was one of our favorites. The more pieces you could stuff into your mouth and chew until they were soft, meant you could blow humongous bubbles! If you were really good, you could remove the gum from your mouth and avoid it popping, and covering your face. If you were going for the record bubble, and it popped, you would get it in your eyes, nose and hair! What a mess! Have you ever tried to get gum out of hair? It is a challenge at best!
Debt is like bubble gum. The more you bite off the harder it is to chew, swallow, and even breathe. It is even dangerous, because it is a choking hazard. Debt has all these characteristics. Hard to chew, swallow, and breathe when you are under the burden of debt. Now you must ask yourself, how important was making that huge bubble? Was it to show off, so you could look good in others eyes? Debt has an allurement all its own. After all, they let you pay it over time, right? But when it is done irresponsibly it can sneak up on you, and over time the payments becomes constant, straining, not only the family budget, but family relationships. The burden of the debt affects everyone! Clear back in the 1600’s Shakespeare said this: Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
That is really good advice to anyone, don’t borrow, and don’t lend. Many financiers are recommending people in today’s economy should live as debt free as possible. Grant it some purchases, like a house or a car, may have to be financed, if you haven’t saved in advance for it. But a nice house and a serviceable car may be a better option, than top of the line, and the huge debt that goes along with them.
Here are some simple questions to ask yourself before you make any purchases on your credit cards.
1 – How important is this thing I want to borrow money for?
2 – Can I live happily without this purchase?
3 – Will this seem just as important in a month, or a year?
4 – What is my motive and ultimate goal in making this purchase?
5 – Will owing this money leave me time for the most important things?
If you ask yourself these questions, you may save yourself a huge mess later! Once the bubble of debt pops, it covers everything and everyone, so think first! The Bible has another verse that could be retrospective in this instance: For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Is what you have not enough for you? Is it worth losing everything for?
There is an old saying; you must pay the piper! In the story of the Pied Piper the people hired the piper to get rid of the rats that were over running the town. He got rid of the rats with his flute, but the people wouldn’t pay him. So he came back and played his flute again, and like the rats the children followed him out-of-town, never to be seen again, because they didn’t pay the debt they owed. Debt can cost you more than what you spent, and make a huge mess, just like when the bubble pops. Recovering from that mess will take a lot longer than it did to create it. Be smart, and spend only what you can afford!
As parents we need to teach our children to save for things that are not essentials. Give them chores, and pay them for their labors. Teach them then to save up for what they would like to have. You are teaching them to be responsible, and frugal. If they learn these lessons in their youth, they will be responsible, and frugal adults, and will thank you for these lessons learned.
We as authors should show the cause and effect of irresponsible borrowing, and misuse of credit cards. Some people will learn valuable lessons, even if when reading your stories, was not their intent. We should also follow our own advice!
Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.
Proverbs 3:27
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
Ecclesiastics 5:5
The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.
Psalms 37:21
The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
Be not thou one of them that strike (shakes) hands, or of them that are sureties for debts.
Proverbs 22:7, 26