Page 44 - Managing Your Resources - Student Syllabus - short combined

Study Section 8: Developing a Spending Plan

8.1 Connect

Let’s say you decide to build a house. You purchase a plot of land and then start digging
the footings. You buy some blocks and begin to lay them, building up your walls. When
you are finished, you find that you forgot to put in any windows or doors to get into the
house. Not good, huh?

That probably would happen, because you forgot to draw up a plan of what the house would look like.
Somehow, you have to make a plan of how many rooms you will have, where the windows and doors
will be placed, how you will construct the roof, and so on. It is good to have a plan, otherwise, you may
not be able to live in your new house.

The same applies to managing God’s money. He has given you the task of management. You are the
steward. A good steward does not haphazardly manage the affairs of another. A good steward makes a
plan and works the plan until a good result is achieved. God expects you to create a good plan for
managing the money He gives you. Today, we are going to learn how to make such a plan….

8.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to explain what a budget is, the importance of a budget, and how
to create one.

2. The student should be able to explain two ways to create a budget, one on a computer, and
one on paper.

3. The student should be able to describe the three basic ways to distribute the amount of money God
gives you and look up verses in Scripture that support each. This process will continue into the next
lesson.

8.3 Developing a Spending Plan

How can we be good stewards of God’s money if we fail to account for where we get it and
how we spend it? A steward is one who manages another’s affairs, property, and finances.
We would not be good managers if we did not know where our money went each month.
For on the Day of Judgment, we will be required to give an account of our actions on earth,
including the type of steward we were of all that God has blessed us with.

Why bother with a budget?

A budget is a plan you make for yourself on how you can best manage the resources God gives
you each month. It is a tool to manage how much income you receive or plan to receive
monthly, and how much of the income you plan to spend, save, or give away. Most people live
hand to mouth, meaning that when they get paid, they spend all the money on what they need
rather than based on a plan.

Just as the rich man’s manager was required to give an account of what his possessions were
43