Friday, January 16, 2009

Generous Living

Generous Living by Ron Blue


In Generous Living, Ron Blue gives great Biblically based fundamentals on managing your money and resources. The overarching theme is being generous with your resources, which includes more than just your material finances. This could also incorporate talents and abilities as well as time. By gaining the perspective that everything is God's and we are His stewards of our possessions we bring into better focus how we manage it and the importance of seeking His counsel when making decisions.

This also helps to change the "me/mine" mentality and loosen one’s grasp rather than holding on greedily to the assets under management. When we realize that God can easily give or take away and that we are simply His managers, we no longer worry about holding tightly to "our stuff." This perspective makes it much easier to lend someone your car or volunteer your time or even give your money. Since God is the ultimate CEO calling the shots, if He sees fit to use "our" money, time, or resources, we should give with a glad and willing heart.

In addition to providing insight into maintaining a generous mindset, Mr. Blue also provides excellent practical advice on topics such as defining financial and giving goals and working towards them, creating a budget, strategic giving (meaning research organizations and individuals you give to and expect accountability to their stated mission and how they use the resources rather than giving blindly), estate planning and how to transfer wealth, whether large or small, to heirs and charitable organizations.

While the book was written 11+ years ago and some of the commentary could benefit from updating based on world and market events that have occurred since that time, it contains timeless principles which will apply long into the future.

If you found this review helpful, please let Amazon know at this link.

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