Finances and The Front Porch!

Greetings from the Front Porch!

Part 4

Faith, family, friends and today is finances. You may ask what do finances have to do with the front porch? At first glance, I would have to say, nothing. However, as I sat and pondered about the porch and my pocket book I am moved by the thought of how rich I really am, not necessarily financially but relationally.


There was a time not so very long ago that the term finances made me think of how much change I had in my wallet, how much cash I needed to pay my bills and how much money I wanted so that I could feel safe and secure.


The term finances was a word that had once painted an immediate picture in my head of money, assets and worth or lack of, since I never felt like I had enough.


When I sat down today to write about finances and the front porch, I thought I was going to share how the philosophy of the front porch helped us get out of debt as a family and how we learned to make the most of what we had by living in the moment and trusting God with our future.


However, the more I sat in front of my computer and thought about finances and the front porch my mind did not paint the same picture that it had some time ago. I paused in the writing process and started to reflect on what my mind was now painting as I thought of the word finance.


My mind went back in time, a beautiful picture of friendship formed on the front porch was painted, and a colorful image started to form of the bushes being removed and the cement being poured not so long ago. A portrait of the front porch was created as a meeting place instead of a mask and the term finances took on a completely new meaning.


I decided to look up some definitions of finances and was surprised to see how some of the definitions I had found matched the picture in my head, creating an imaginary paint by numbers canvas, ready to fill in with new meanings to the same word.


Finances can mean one of several things such as money, funds, assets, capital, investments and resources, just to name a few. My favorite of all these definitions would be resources; it is the brightest of the color pallet that filled my imagination as it popped off the pages and into my mind. Resources gave the word finances a completely new outfit as I continued to ponder over how the front porch and finances have connected.


Resource defined at its best means somebody or something that is a source of help or information. That word somebody formed images of people sitting on my front porch after the bushes had been removed, when the porch became a meeting place instead of a mask. Resources was a result of intentional relationships, not something I set out to obtain but rather a positive natural consequence of choosing to be in open authentic friendships.


Today when people gather around the front porch, sharing their needs, desires and dreams inevitably we are able to connect with one another to help resource those needs, desires and dreams, even if it means just listening well. The front porch has become a place where a community of people come together to help one another, for a reason a season or a lifetime as we learn to make the most of our finances, using the resources we have to dream big dreams.


The front porch is a place where faith, family, friends and finances can collide together and create community, as we live in the moment and trust God with our future. Thank you God for redefining my finances and resourcing me through real relationships!


Cris