Article September 4, 2006 Issue

FREED FROM FINANCIAL WORRY

BY VAL MINARD

Have you ever been down to your last dime and wondered how you were going to survive? Many of us have been in tight financial spots, scarcely able to make ends meet. Perhaps you've lost a job or a home, have a fixed income, or are in debt. The world can look pretty gloomy when you don't know where your next dollar is coming from.

But I've been learning that no situation is hopeless. Rather than feeling like a helpless victim of circumstance, we really have a choice about how we respond. There are spiritual resources right at hand to bail us out of whatever financial dilemma in which we find ourselves. We can turn to our divine Parent, the Giver of all good, and trust that no trouble is too big for our rich heavenly Father-Mother. God always provides for legitimate needs.

When I was in the last semester of my senior year in college, I completely ran out of money. I wondered how I was going to buy my food and pay the rent for the rest of the summer before I graduated. Since my parents were also financially strapped, I couldn't ask them.