Since this time of year has many of us dads scrampling to finish our federal tax returns (as well as state and local) in the USA, I thought I would highlight a few areas of “other income” the Internal Revenue Service reminds us to report on our tax returns.

Lest you think I made these up, you can actually read these on the IRS Publication 17 webpage.

Bribes. If you receive a bribe, include it in your income.

Illegal activities. Income from illegal activities, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Form 1040, line 21, or on Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity.

Kickbacks. You must include kickbacks, side commissions, push money, or similar payments you receive in your income on Form 1040, line 21, or on Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ (Form 1040), if from your self-employment activity.

Stolen property. If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner.

LOL. You just never know what helpful insights you might get by reading the FamilyDads emails?! 

Seriously, let me encourage you to not wait till the very last minute to get your taxes done, and be extra careful not to vent stress on your family if you are still working on your return or find you owe more than expected.

And of course, have complete integrity on your tax return. After all, it’s only money.

“…Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” (Matt 22:21, Mark 12:17, Luke 20:25)

Many dads and their families are in tough financial circumstances right now. Maybe you’re one of them.

Mark is a self-employed dad, married with two young children, who sent me a very encouraging and insightful email about his own financial situation that may help you.

Here is Mark’s story:

Because my business had dropped by 80% over the last year and half due to the recession, we have been in full-out survival mode!

I believed in my head that I was depended on God’s provision, but my heart and emotions were completely dependent on my bank account and signed business agreements.

Now, my wife and I had handled our finances “by the book.”  We only have our home as a debt (a home we can easily afford and does not stretch us.)  We even had a full year’s salary in savings!  Dave Ramsey would be proud of us.

But God had to empty us of those two dependencies we were leaning on – money in the bank and my business income — to show us His reality for our lives.

Back in June we got down to our last $700!  We were at the point of not having enough to pay the mortgage and medical benefits.  I had come to the end of my abilities to “make it happen.”

Because there was nothing more I could do to “turn the Titanic around,” and because I had been hearing from God that I was not to do anything else but stay the course of my profession and current direction (no matter how bad it was), I finally rested in God’s unseen plan to do something for us.

I finally took my hands off the wheel.

A strange thing happened.  I felt more peace than I had in years!

The best way to describe it was like I had been desperately flying a small plane (with my family on board) through the terrifying storms of a hurricane.  Our plane had been frighteningly jerking and jolting due to the winds.  I could hardly see out the rain-soaked window.  My eyes blinded by deadly lightning all around me.  My hands painfully locked, white-knuckled to the steering wheel.  The wings about to snap off at any second and we would plunge to our death!

This was the picture of the last year and half of survival in my devastated industry.  It had been one of the hardest times of my life.

But when we came to the end of our resources, I felt like I finally broke through the howling winds of the hurricane we were trying to survive, to then break out into the Eye of the hurricane.  The Eye of a hurricane is still and calm.  There are no winds and rain, and the sun is bright.  There is peace and rest there from the storm.  The storm was all around us still, but we were no longer being buffeted by it.

I remained in that state of peace and rest for a couple weeks, with a felt awareness that God was up to something I had not sensed before.  During that time, a few small and random checks came in from reimbursements I had forgotten about or written off.  They were just enough to pay the bills that month.

Then the flood gates of heaven opened up!

In the last 3 months, God has released more business than I could have ever imagined!  I have closed larger deals than ever in my 7-years of operating my own architecture firm.  And they are coming faster than I have ever seen them. They are even the best design opportunities I have had in my firm – they are some of the most exciting designs I have had come in.

Plus, they are coming out of seemingly nowhere.  They are not coming from leads I sowed, but rather from old acquaintances or through channels I was not working on at all.  This unbelievable abundance is coming out of sources and places I cannot claim any credit whatsoever.  It is completely uncanny.

And the work keeps coming!  And I’ve discovered a new rest and a new peace.  I’ve discovered a new Source that had been there all along.  Thank you Father.

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I trust Mark’s story has both encouraged and challenged you today.

Feel free to point others to this post who would benefit from Mark’s story.

Blessings to you and your family,
Joey Watkins
Founder, FamilyDads.com

This Book Has Major Impact
Living On The Third River is a book that has absolutely revolutionized my thinking about money in a way no other book on money and finances has, and it’s only 68 pages!

As dads, part of leading our families involves the work God calls us to. Among other things, our work is a significant means of income, a primary channel through which God, our source of provision, supplies money to us and our family.

So imagine this scenario at your place of work. It’s Friday afternoon and your supervisor steps into your office with a seemingly casual question…

“Can you come into the conference room for a brief meeting?”

You finish your email, save the document, or complete whatever task you are right in the middle of, and then make your way down the hall to the company conference room. In the past, you’ve participated in many staff meetings, strategy planning sessions, and even birthday parties in this conference room, but none like today’s meeting.
“As you know, our company’s revenue has gone way down in recent months, and we’ve had to evaluate ways to significantly cut costs. Effective immediately, your position is being eliminated.”

And with that, you find yourself out of a job — without any advance notice and through no fault of your own. What makes this especially painful is the fact that you have given five years of faithful service to your company, many of those weeks spent working well over 40 hours.

When God closes a door in our lives — especially a major one like our work — the natural tendency is to panic and to project negative “what if” scenarios about our future. If we haven’t been in close relationship with God and regularly hearing from Him, we can be be easily overcome by feelings of fear, rejection, and even anger.

The song lyrics of “Look For A Window” give encouragement and advice to the person facing this very scenario:

Hot on the trail of God’s will
And getting warmer still
Stopped by the slam of a door
God, what’d You do that for?

When God closes a door, look for a window
Don’t stand at the door, there might be a window

Responsibilities change
And so do our pathways
One way God shows which way to go
Is to let the old road close

There’s no point in getting down on yourself
God is only pointing you somewhere else

In challenging times like this, a wise dad will go to God with this attitude in his heart and prayers…
“God, this did not take you by surprise. You knew this was going to happen, and You knew when it would happen. I am so grateful that you take care of me and my family. Help me guard my heart and my thoughts as I seek to know what you are doing in my life and what the next step is for me to take. You know our financial needs, and You are the source of provision for my family. So help me remain full of faith in You during this time, waiting on You, listening for Your promptings, and obedient to whatever You tell me. And thank You for your faithfulness to me during the past five years that I worked at this company.”

As I consider my closing thoughts on this topic, my six-year-old son, totally unaware of what I am writing about, just blurted out in the other room…

“Do you know what song I have in my head right now?”

He then proceeded to sing a kid’s song version of Matthew 6:34 which says, “Do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will look after itself.”

I suspect that verse is directly for someone who will read this. Out of the mouth of babes!

If you’re in the midst of job transition, stay encouraged, and continue to…

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” ~Proverbs 3:5-6

Blessings to you and your family,
Joey Watkins
Founder, FamilyDads.com

PS – This would be a good post to forward along to another dad you may know who is in the midst of job transition. Also, take him out for lunch or breakfast and spend some time with him talking and praying together. He would probably appreciate your friendship, kindness, and prayer support right now.

Do you know the five Biblical uses of money, the spiritual power behind money, the symptoms to guage where you are spiritually with your finances, and the two different economic systems in the world? Learn More

We have been enjoying the Dad Summit in the live webinar sessions this week.

Norm Wakefield and Todd Wilson have given us very helpful messages on identity, turning our hearts toward our children, our “father power”, and how to love our wives and live with them in an understanding way.

The recordings have turned out great and should be available for access on Wednesday to those who have registered for the Dad Summit.

Tonight we will have another special guest.

Craig Hill is the Founder of Family Foundations Intl. His passion is helping God’s people discover and walk in God’s very best for our lives.

One of the primary areas is finances and money.

Craig teaches on this topic in a very unique way, especially on Jesus’ admonition about serving God vs. mammon and seeking first God’s Kingdom.

This is a VERY positive message and life-changing.

Craig’s little book, Living On The Third River, absolutely revolutionized my thinking about money in a way no other book on money and finances has.

I have shared this book with others and it has transformed their thinking and perspective about money, mammon, blessing, and abundance, and raised their trust in God to a new level.

Craig will be with us tonight at 9pm and 10pm Eastern.

If you get this email in time, it’s not too late to join us at the live Dad Summit webinar sessions tonight with Craig.

You can register at this link and also get access to the recordings of all the other sessions too–

http://www.dadresources.com/Dad-Summit_c_36.html

Hope to see you tonight!

Blessings,

Joey Watkins, Founder of FamilyDads.com

PS – We will also be emailing instructions for  accessing the recordings of the Dad Summit sessions. (Recordings are included with registration.)

The short video clip below discusses a common topic that I suspect affects many if not most dads. Craig Hill shares a perspective that you may never have thought of before. This perspective may forever change the way you view this topic. I strongly suggest the resource mentioned below the video.

For more on this topic of debt, mammon, and money, I highly recommend the resource “Living On The Third River” by Craig Hill. It changed my paradigm about money in a way no other book has (outside the Bible) using a modern-day parable and rock solid truly life-changing teaching about money, provision, financial security, mammon, faith, generosity, abundance, and blessing others, from a spiritual perspective with practical application to our financial decisions and how we live our lives.

A dad in Texas shared an amazing story that recently happened at the company where he works.

His story makes a very strong case about our priorities…

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We all know how the economy is going nowadays, and probably most of us, if not all, are concerned about the near future, our jobs, and praying hard about it.

Yesterday at church I saw a good buddy of mine, and he was not looking good. So I took him aside and asked him what was going on. (We are accountability partners, and we often go straight to the point, no “how are you ?” between us.)

He told me that at his workplace “pink slips” were flying all around him, personnel reduction was the “word of the month,” and he was very worried about his job.

He works in IT and was studying madly to get a very hard IT certification to make his position harder to get rid of.

I understood, since I share his same concern, and I am in the ’same boat’ so to speak.

That made me think, and I told him the story I want to share with you all, that happened in my workplace last week.

Last Monday, as soon as we got to the office, we were told that one of the oldest executive managers in the company, “James” had passed on the night before, in his bed.

James was the General Manager of our most lucrative sales market, he had been the company VP and CFO
in different times, and was one of the oldest employees of the company.

The guy was working 12-14 hours a day, taking very little care of himself, and work was his life.

You all see where this is going, right?

A few days after the funeral, I was in the car with our VP, going to Dallas, for business. In the car we started to talk almost immediately about James and what had happened.

After a few casual comments of sorrow about his death, the VP made a comment that gave me the chills …

She said “You know, James “passing away” is going to save the company a lot of money, his salary was quite good, and all in all, we were considering “letting him go” anyway, for we still have to cut salaries and personnel…”

My heart sunk, for I realized how little “James” the man, the individual, had mattered to the company.

Technically, the comment was right.

Under the moral and “human” perspective, it was chilling.

Today, a week after the event, “James” is nearly forgotten.

Gone, merely a faint memory. His position will not be replaced, the company will save money, and that is the end of a 17 years old career.

Guys, put your time, heart and effort in your family and in God.

I still remember the stories my grandfather used to tell me, and he passed away 25 years ago.

My children still laugh and cherish the stories I tell them about my mother’s grandfather…

It’s just money, folks… rust and moths.

What really matters is in the hearts of people you live with, share laughs, experience life and faith with.

You (we all) are not what your job says.

We are fathers, husbands, a brother, a friend, a son of a wonderful God.

Your company will erase the memory of you in a few days, if you drop dead tomorrow.

Your family will remember you forever — put your sweat and effort where it will bear good fruits.

Sorry for the story, it’s probably depressing, but I felt the urgent need to vent…

God Bless you all, brothers.

TexasDad

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I pray this story has been a clear reminder to all of us dads of what and who to truly prioritize in 2009.

Blessings to you and your family in this new year,
Joey Watkins
Founder, FamilyDads

PS – The best resource I’ve found on helping dads make and keep the right priorities is–
http://www.dadresources.com/product.asp?itemid=15

As you probably know, the US stock market had its largest single day drop in history yesterday. Many politicians at the federal level are trying their best to dump $700 billion of bad debt onto the US taxpayers. And all across the news headlines lately are stories of declining economies and financial uncertainty.

However, for us family dads, it does not have to be a season of financial despair and discouragement.

Earlier this year, my wife and I were sitting in a large church gathering when the pastor took a quick “diversion” from his sermon to make a very heart-felt and urgent plea. He said “Do whatever you have to do to get completely out of debt as soon as possible.” And then he returned to his sermon topic. My wife and I both looked at each other and felt very clearly his instruction was directed specifically to us.

Fellow dad, I want to strongly encourage you with these same words.

Debt is when we buy things we don’t currently have the money on hand to purchase. It is the result of either a failure on our part to delay a purchase until provision exists. Or it is simply used in complete ignorance of the spiritual power behind debt.

When we use debt to buy something, we are willingly placing ourselves in bondage to both the financial lender as well as in the spiritual realm. I believe it is a form of idolatry. We are replacing God by presumptuously satisfying our desires or needs through borrowing money to pay for something, instead of awaiting His provision in His timing.

Author Craig Hill says that “there is a spirit behind personal debt, which will hinder the flow of finances in one’s life.” The weight of paying back money you don’t have, along with the pile of interest that builds up, creates a form a slavery –  and YOU and your family become the slaves. This is NOT what we want for ourselves nor for our family.

So again, let me pass on to you the words that so strongly resonated within me when I heard them…

“Do whatever you have to do to get completely out of debt as soon as possible.”

A helpful resource on the topic of the spiritual power behind money is Living On The Third River by Craig Hill. Two very practical resources on debt, provision, and spiritual laws relating to money are Your Financial Revolution 5-CD Audio Set and the book Fixing The Money Thing by Gary Keesee. All of these resources and more are available in the “Money” section at www.DadResources.com

Is there financial pressure in your home?

Financial tension with your spouse?

Is your primary focus on making more money?

Is there anxiety in your life over your financial condition?

Does earning money make you feel “successful”?

From one dad to another, I strongly encourage that you read
“Living On The Third River.”

It’s a quick, easy read that will radically change your thinking about money.

It begins with a story of three men who live on the side of a mountain along three rivers and how each man uses the water flowing down his river. The water represents money, and the way each man responds to the flow of water in his river reveals his true beliefs about provision.

You will quickly spot which river you are living on.

This book is about the spiritual power behind money and it’s influence on people.

Although it’s not a “kid’s book”, this is also an excellent resource to teach your children the truth about money, the spiritual power behind it, and the true source of financial provision.

I’ve read the story aloud with my children and will continue to do so regularly. I will even make this required reading for them on their journey to adulthood.

But don’t be mis-led. This book is for YOU, Dad.

It’s message can totally transform you in your understanding of money, the spiritual power behind it, the true source of provision, and how to become a financial blessing to others.

Get your copy of Living On The Third River.

by Joey Watkins

Last night I was reading a chapter in the book Created For Work with my almost 10-year-old son. The chapter was on blind spots and tells a story of a time when the author, Bob Schultz, nearly killed himself in the woods one day on a runaway logging skidder because his foot was unknowingly mashed down on the accelerator while he stood on the step-up platform to hitch a ride. Because of the noise of the engine, the driver had to literally punch Bob’s leg off the accelerator to save him from a deadly accident.

Bob then ties this story to the problems we each face in life — in our work, our family, or whenever life gets out of hand — and encourages us to consider if we may be at fault.

A blind spot, of course, is some flaw in our actions, our talk, or our character that we do not see but others do. We don’t know what our blind spots are because if we did, they wouldn’t be blind spots!

For many of us dads, our blind spots are in the areas of pride, ego, selfishness, impure thoughts, and love of money. I know a man who worked as a sales manager for a business owner who had a blind spot in the area of his money. His business grew extremely well financially year after year and developed a very large surplus of cash. However, the business owner kept most of the profits and shared relatively little with his sales manager. His blind spot was a false sense of security in his money.

Knowing we have blind spots should humble each of us. Our wife, our children, and those in our work environment are usually the ones best able to help us identify our blind spots because these people spend the most time with us and know us best.

Let’s step up as family dads and have the courage to ask them what our blind spots are. Do it honestly, and don’t be defensive when they tell you. Just listen, pray about it, and then begin changing your ways. You’ll be a better person for it… and a better dad for your family.

“Who can understand stumblings? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.” Psalm 19:12

Resource For Boys

Dad, here’s a great way to spend one-on-one time with your 8-16 year old son. Read aloud with him each evening from this book, Created For Work. Each chapter is very short — only 3 to 5 pages — and uses an adventurous story in the life of a carpenter/handyman along with scripture to communicate principles of life, work, and character that our boys need to learn during their transition to manhood. The writing style is wholesome, engaging, and communicates spiritual truth to boys such as diligence, initiative, honesty, promptness, responsibility, and much more. A highly recommended FamilyDads resource. Learn More and Order