This post will most likely be filled with disclaimers. So let me start with one right from the get-go. I am not writing this post in response to anything or anyone specific. It’s been on my mind for many months, and the time came to put my fingers on the keyboard and send my heart out onto the screen.

My pastor’s wife (and friend) reminded us yesterday in our Bible study time that as Americans, there are, in comparison to women in third-world countries, very few of us who are poor to the level of wondering where our next meal will come from. For the majority of us, praying over our “daily bread” is not a matter of whether or not there will be anything to eat. It is more likely that our “difficult task” will be about choosing what we will eat from the many options available to us. In general, most truly have more than enough, and that is why I’ve been thinking about the fact that we must, without fail, be good stewards of whatever we’ve been given.

My husband and I find great joy each month in sending “above-and-beyond” funds to help support missionaries and organizations whose work we believe in. This is something we both did prior to our marriage to each other, and it’s been exciting to see God take those desires and habits and continue them in new and exciting ways. Perhaps this is why I’ve begun to think even more carefully about my/our responsibility to properly save, spend, and give (i.e., steward) what God has more than graciously given to me/us.

When we looked at our pre-marriage-to-each-other “charitable-contribution habits” long enough to reassess and confirm the whys and hows behind them, we had the ability to make wise choices going forward. While we are not poor by any stretch of most imaginations, we do make choices regarding our lifestyle so that we can free up those funds to help others or to support missions and Christian organizations. I say this, not to our praise, but to God’s glory!

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction. You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone; for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

—Paul, thanking the church in Philippi for their sacrificial giving, Philippians 4:10–20, NASB

Please remember that as you read this post. Even the wealthiest among us (and we are not in that category, I assure you) most often must choose one thing over another. The same funds can’t be used for multiple items. When we as a church or as individuals send you “x” number of dollars each month, it doesn’t mean we have “x” number of excess dollars. It means that we’ve chosen to give (yes, sacrificially) those dollars to you and the work you are sacrificially doing for the cause of Christ rather than spending them on our own wants and desires. (I must add here that as a result, our great God often provides for those wants and desires anyhow…just because He can!)

Yet, often driven by the ease of social media and/or the human desire for approval, those in vocational Christian work see their friends posting photos of new houses, cars, gadgets, clothing, etc. and feel the need to do the same. I am not, in any sense of the word, saying that they should do without those things. But I am asking those in vocational Christian work to consider something: While you are sacrificing to go, others are sacrificing (be it great or small) to send you.

With that in mind, I’ll be honest with you. While I don’t know the backstory to the funds that provided your ability to complete an entire house renovation with hardware, flooring, and new furniture that many of your supporters can only dream of having, I do know that seeing them flashed across social media with no mention of God’s provision of them or with no gratitude for being able to do these (perhaps) needed changes makes our “sacrificial giving” to you a little more of a sacrifice. When you request funds for your missions projects while posting publicly about your latest multi-hundred-dollar decorating or technology purchase, my sacrifice suddenly gets weighed against your sacrifice.

So what’s the solution? Should missionaries live in abject poverty just so I feel better about not updating my kitchen or not putting in new windows? Absolutely not. However, a humble servant of God makes certain that all is done to the glory of God. If posting photos of things that you have will eventually serve to praise the God we love, please know that I will gladly rejoice with you over God’s provision and His blessing on your sacrificial giving of your life in service to Him. And I will gladly choose to invest in you and your work rather than in things that will one day fade away.

All we, as supporters of your work, ask is that you remember with each dollar you spend that the dollar you are spending is a dollar that was first entrusted to us (as a church or as individuals) by God and that is now being entrusted to you. Spend it wisely.