Investments that Pay

When you own shares in a company that pays dividends, you receive a dividend payment four times a year. This payment is in direct proportion to the size of your initial investment. It usually is not a very large payment, but long term investors know that the dividend is an important piece of the investment equation.

Short sighted investors will often take that dividend payment and go and spend it. But smart, long term investors will usually plow that dividend right back into the market. In this way, they turn these small investments into big returns. After 10, 20, or 30 years, they build themselves a significant portfolio that can help them in the years when they most need it.

Relationships are the same way. Your relationship with your spouse, your kids, or your valued friends and family are like investments that pay dividends. There is always a cost to “buy in” to the relationship. When you marry someone, there is a significant investment of capital that changes hands, and I’m not just talking about the cash for the rings and the wedding. You choose to invest your emotional energy, your time and your life into the relationship. It is the same, in varying degrees, with all relationship investments.

And there are generally dividends that are paid (at least in most healthy relationships). These are the small positive exchanges that we receive as a result of our investment. In a marriage, these dividends for guys usually involve physical intimacy, for gals usually emotional support and physical presence. In parent-child relationships, the dividends generally come in the form of those special moments when your child acknowledges that you are important in their life.

These little exchanges are wonderful little reminders of the investment we have made. And far too often, we leave it at that. Or worse yet, we simply expect that these little dividends will just keep coming our way because we paid that initial investment way back when.

But the smart ones among us — the long term value investors — they leverage those dividends into continued investments that result in incredible relationships. Where many take those positive interactions for granted, they keep plowing more into the relationship. They keep writing notes, they keep going on dates, they keep seeking out the other person in small ways and big. They know that there are in it for the long haul because they want to have a great relationship with their spouse and their kids and their friends in 10, 20 and 30 years.

The truly good relationships, the ones we look at and wish they were ours. They don’t happen overnight. They happen small investment by small investment. But the payout at the end of the day is incredible.

This weekend, why don’t you choose an investment that pay dividends and get you and your family in church? The pastors of Kings County are waiting to help you make some solid investment choices.

What Are You Eating?

“You are what you eat.” At least that is what we are told. And there is something to the saying of course. As the foods you eat are digested by your body, they are broken down into the basic materials needed to sustain the life of your cells. That hamburger you ate yesterday? Tomorrow it will be in your bicep muscle. That extra serving of dessert? In your butt, gut or thighs. You know how it goes.

One of our greatest challenges in keeping ourselves healthy is eating right. This is particularly difficult when we discover that what we have been eating is actually harming us rather than helping us and we have to change. Suddenly, all of our favorite foods, the foods that give us comfort and the foods that we look forward to at the end of a long day at work are verboten. Everything within us calls out to the 128oz Cherry Coke, the thick slice of extra chocolate double layer cake and the deep fried [you insert your favorite item] goodness that makes it all better.

But for most of those that endure the suffering, say “no” and retrain themselves to eat right, the reward is not only a healthier body but a new appetite. Sure it takes a while, but eventually if you feed yourself the right things for long enough, you actually begin to like them and instead of constantly craving the fat and sugar loaded goodies, your body calls out for fuel that is good and healthy.

This is true not only of your appetites for food, but also for everything else we “feed” ourselves in life. Not only do we have a food diet, but we also have an entertainment diet, a family diet and a relationship diet (among many other things).

If we have fed ourselves nothing more than the sugar and salt loaded prime time tv, then we probably will not appreciate the lean and healthy opera or stage play. If we have always feasted on Chuck E. Cheese as our outing with the kids, then going hiking with a picnic seems nearly impossible. If we always give in to gossip about those around us, then we are boared at the prospect of a steady, healthy relationship free of drama. These “higher” foods seem boring and difficult until we dive into them and train ourselves to appreciate them -- only then do we discover that there is a whole other side to life!

This weekend, the pastors of Kings County would love the opportunity to help you develop a new taste for the things of God. Perhaps you have developed a diet that excludes God altogether or simply relegates Him to the place of an occasional appetizer. It might be time to retrain yourself. It might seem strange and difficult at first, but you will soon discover what you have been missing.

Andrew Cromwell is the executive pastor at Koinonia Christian Fellowship in Hanford. E-mail him
at andrew@kcfchurch.org or call 582-1528.