Cameron emailed me with a quote from his book that might explain his situation further. Here’s the quote:

“The prosperous have developed the habit of buying things wholesale. I am wearing a nice long-sleeve Hathaway Golf® shirt which would cost $50 at a golf shop; however I would never buy clothes at a golf shop. I purchased this shirt new for $2 at a Salvation Army Thrift Store. When my wife and I were looking to purchase a home, we searched for a home we could buy below its value. We search for over a year. The home we purchased for $284,000 in 2002 had been valued at $386,000 by the tax assessor, and this was the amount the seller paid property tax on the previous year. We also negotiated to receive $8,000 at closing for improvements on the property so the actual cost of the home was $276,000. I was able to purchase a house at more than $100,000 below its value. The house is now valued at over $500,000. We paid off the mortgage in 3 years.”

In my opinion, he was pretty frugal with the purchase of the house, even though he was spending a lot of money on a retaining wall to improve the property. And by forgiving his friend’s debt, he probably helped his friend out of a tight situation and perhaps made such an impression on his friend that he changed his ways.

I hope the nothing happens to the kids now that there is no wall. I wonder how God would feel if a child was injured or worse because Lynnae decided it was His money, not hers!

Forgiving the debt is admirable, and many of us would not have been so forgiving. But to bring God into it is a sacrilege.

As far as the story – I think it really shows how powerful forgiveness is. I tend to think that people should pay their debts as well, and I think the man still could if he thinks he should – I know I would. But to me the point of the story is this – We are only stewards of our things/money, we need to use them wisely and for the betterment of our fellow man.

As an aside, I did an interview with the author of this post over the weekend. You can find it HERE

Forgiving $20,000 on a failed business contract is not charity.

The least that should be done is that you hold the contractor accountable for building the wall, on his own dime. Not holding business owners accountable for bad (and in this case, patently illegal) behavior just condones the behavior and sets a bad precedent for future clients of his. What has he learned other than that you won’t hold him accountable for his actions? What lesson did he learn other than he can spend a client’s money on personal things and that he won’t be held legally liable? He learned that contracts don’t mean a thing, that he can break the law without consequences, and that he doesn’t have to honor his commitments.

It’s good to forgive people, you would forgive them for the sin of stealing. However, you should expect to be repaid, and help that person keep to their commitment.

For those of you who are newer to my site, I try to weave some spiritual insight into my posts on Sundays. This guest post fit well with that, so I chose to run it today.

When I decided to run this post, it was for one reason. My entire motivation for being frugal is that my money, my time, my resources belong to God, and therefore I need to make the most frugal use of those resources that I can, so I can glorify Him. I think this post exemplifies that well.

While I don’t believe everyone should just blindly forgive a debt, I do believe that in this case that’s what God was leading the author to do, and I admire his willingness to follow God’s leading when so much was at stake.

As far as frugality goes, I don’t think we can judge the author’s “frugalness” based on this one article. My definition of being frugal has always been to use my resources in the best way to help me meet my goals in life. For me, a $40,0000 retaining wall is out of the question. But we don’t know the author’s situation. If he had the money to pay cash (and obviously he did, as he was able to forgive the debt), and he needed a safe place for his children to play, I don’t necessarily think improving his property to create that place is “unfrugal.”

Who knows what else he uses his home for. Perhaps he has Bible studies with families with children and uses his property to glorify God. I don’t think that just because a person has the money to spend on a retaining wall makes that person not frugal.