Living Within the Income
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feeling that it is a duty to use your time and strength to the very best
advantage, and in the fear of God.
You have been in a business which would at times yield you large
profits at once. After you have earned means, you have not studied
to economize in reference to a time when means could not be earned
so easily, but have expended much for imaginary wants. Had you and
your wife understood it to be a duty that God enjoined upon you, to
deny your taste and your desires, and make provision for the future,
instead of living merely for the present, you could now have had a
competency, and your family have had the comforts of life. You have
a lesson to learn which you should not be backward in learning. It is
to make a little go the longest way....
Jesus wrought a miracle, and fed five thousand, and then He taught
an important lesson of economy: “Gather up the fragments that remain,
that nothing be lost.” Duties, important duties, rest upon you. “Owe no
man anything.” Were you infirm, were you unable to labor, then your
brethren would be in duty bound to help you. As it is, all you needed
from your brethren when you changed your location, was a start. If you
felt as ambitious as you should, and you and your wife would agree to
live within your means, you could be free from embarrassment. You
will have to labor for small wages as well as for large. Industry and
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economy would have placed your family, ere this, in a much more
favorable condition.—
Testimonies for the Church 2:431-436
.
Economy From Principle
Those whose hands are open to respond to the calls for means to
sustain the cause of God and to relieve the suffering and the needy, are
not the ones who are found loose and lax and dilatory in their business
management. They are always careful to keep their outgoes within
their income. They are economical from principle; they feel it their
duty to save, that they may have something to give.—
Testimonies for
the Church 4:573
.
The First Lesson—Self-Denial
I have seen poor families struggling with debt, and yet the children
were not trained to deny themselves in order to aid their parents. In