Kaysian Gordon, CFP®, CKA®, CPA, MBA

As Christians, Advent is such a great opportunity to share with loved ones what the birth of Christ truly means. However, it’s also a time that can be overwhelming in many ways, including financially.

This month, our advisors wanted to share some personal insights on how they’ve been able to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas in a way that’s affordable.

Towards the end of last year, I sensed the Lord giving me new instructions. As I prayed for my word for the year, I got two: Rest and Surrender.

These words aren’t particularly surprising, based on what I know of myself. For many years, the Lord had been calling me to “Be Still” - Psalm 46:10 and to “Seek Him First” - Matthew 6:33. Whenever I think I’ve finally gotten the instruction right, I seem to get a new level of understanding and He brings me into deepening the instruction.

This year has been no different.

However, something surprising has emerged as I contemplate my finances.

Our Christian Financial Advisors group (members of CFAN) recently met for our quarterly meeting. We typically start with prayer and devotion, and one of the members shared a devotion anchored in Matthew 25:14-30, more commonly known as “The Story of the Talents”.

As we listened to each other, we we had a few conversation points, and one of them was “What does it mean to you (as an individual) to be a good steward?”  We each come from different backgrounds and perspectives, so it was interesting to hear the various viewpoints.

As we continue to make our way through the Advent season it’s a great time to reflect on the coming of Christ and its significance. Oftentimes this season can become overshadowed by events, shopping, work, travel, and other year end activities but as Christians it’s an opportunity for meaningful preparation, reflection, and praise.

In this post our advisors get to talk about some of their favorite causes they support as they praise God and connect this season of giving to the birth of Christ and its eternal impact.

Before we even begin, I want to stop and rephrase the question: is it even possible to have peace in our financial lives?

As I was listening to a sermon titled, “Our Peace: God’s Will” by the late Dr. Charles Stanley, the question of whether we can have peace in our financial lives began percolating in my mind. We are used to discussing peace in our lives in the general sense of what we believe peace to be, but my mind started thinking about the correlation between peace in our lives and peace in our financial lives.

I love the topic that my CFAN Colleague, Anil “Neil” Chacko, discussed last month, What Does The Bible Say About Work And Retirement?

He used the scripture Genesis 3:17, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

Work was set up for us to do, since the beginning of time. God gave each of us a role to play.

Each year our advisors love to collaborate on a group blog post around Advent/Christmas time and address what a specific topic means to us.

This year we chose, “What is Advent and how does it relate to your finances?”

Life Insurance is one of the topics that is particularly sensitive to me.

Why, you might ask? And that would be a very fair question.

Isn’t life insurance necessary?

Debt is a topic that has been coming up in conversations quite a bit recently.

My church body has been studying the topic this quarter in a series called: “Managing for the Master: Till He Comes”.

As a Christian financial advisor, I have been excited that this real world topic of debt, along with other financial topics, are being taught from a Biblical perspective. We know that money is important to the heart of God because there are over 2,300 verses pertaining to money in the Bible.

As we near Christmas, our advisors at the Christian Financial Advisors Network wanted to share how they guide their families through giving and receiving during the Advent season and the faith impact that it has.

Enjoy!