When I was younger, there was always something I loved about trying to find ways to make money. 

For me, it started with lemonade stands and searching for change at my aunt's and uncle's house. I then found out that if I bought out all of the fundraiser chocolate at my school, I could resell it for double the price. 

I learned a couple of things quickly. First, people really like those chocolate bars. Second, supply and demand rocks. Next, apparently, you aren’t allowed to do that in school... But, lastly, that discipline with money does not come naturally. 

As I got older, that discipline grew and shifted from chocolate bars to learning how to resell anything I could figure out, from shoes, clothes, thrift store/garage sale items, and everything in between. Over time this allowed me to pay my way through college without any student debt. I share this not to brag, but to show how God taught me responsibility, patience, and stewardship began through small beginnings. 

Here is the thing about this that seems to be forgotten when it comes to money: everything meaningful starts small. 

You do not make varsity by walking into the gym once. You do not get to the top of your class without studying. You do not develop habits, skills, and good things without repeatedly doing the right thing. It starts with saying no to the wrong things and yes to the right. We understand that everywhere, but we have to understand that this same principle applies to money. Jesus makes this incredibly clear to us in Luke 16. He says, 

“Whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” 

He continues by saying that no one can serve both God and money. This explains so clearly why so many people who gain sudden wealth lose it just as fast. We see in Proverbs 13:11 that 

“Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.” 

Professional athletes, lottery winners, and celebrities go bankrupt all the time. Because money doesn't change someone's character. It reveals it. 

As Henry Ford once said, money simply unmasks who a person already is. At the heart of this is the idea of stewardship. Stewardship is the idea of faithfully managing everything God has entrusted to you. This includes your time, your talents, your opportunities, and of course, your money. Scripture makes it clear that nothing we have truly belongs to us. 1 Chronicles 29 says, 

“Everything comes from You, and we have given You only what comes from Your hand.”

 This should change everything for us. If everything is not ours, but we are in possession of what belongs to God, then our job is not ownership; it is management. We are borrowers, not owners. 

Think about this in the same way you would treat your pair of shoes compared to how you would borrow your older sibling's shoes. You would take extra care of them! Why? Because they aren’t yours, you have someone to answer to if you return them worse than when you got them. This is true for your money. It is not yours; you are just borrowing it from the Lord and are in charge of managing it on this side of eternity. 

So how can you practice this right now? As with everything in following Christ, the most important thing is what is going on in your heart. We read in 2 Corinthians that God loves a cheerful giver. Giving teaches your heart that money does not control you. It teaches you that God is your provider. God teaches in Malachi 3, where God says to test Him in generosity. It is the only place in Scripture where God invites us to test His faithfulness through obedience. So here is the simple question: Are you living as if your money is yours or that it is His? The habits you build now will shape the direction of your future. Whether that is generosity, debt, margin, stress, peace, or freedom begins with the decisions you make with the few. Being faithful with the few leads to being faithful with much.