[Darris McNeely] After two months of businesses being shut down, America in a quarantine, I finally got a haircut a few days ago. As I was sitting in the chair with my barber and talking with the gal that runs the shop where I get my haircut, I asked her how she was doing and I said, "You gonna survive? Is your business going to make it?" And she kind of looked at me, she says, "I was born a survivor. I'm a survivor." And she will, her clientele is coming back. Now, as we look at what's happening in the larger economy. We already know that there are a lot of restaurants, a lot of small businesses that did not and will not make it through, they will disappear. Even some big retail concerns, and other businesses will not come back out of this recent economic crisis.

But one of the things that I learned as I kind of read and talked with people and even talking with the lady that cuts my hair, recognizing that just how razor thin are the margins, the economic margins of a lot of businesses, a restaurant, another small business, a manufacturing business that people have and what they operate on, that 30 days without income can put them literally into bankruptcy and out of business. And it was a reminder of just how people do live in that way and perhaps, for whatever circumstance, are not able to put money back for a rainy day. My barber had money put back for a rainy day, as she said, "I'm a survivor," she'd learned. And I think that that's a big lesson for us all to take away from this, one of the big lessons economically, that we have got to learn to reduce debt. We've got to put money aside for such a time so that when we might lose a job, be laid off, the economy take a turn as it did with this, or even our own health create a problem where we cannot work. We've got a bit of a cushion. A few months to live off of. Now, there are other social programs that can help as well. But when it comes down to it, we've got to take those steps. Biblically...so many principles that the Word of God tells us to look ahead, to plan ahead, to live within our means, reduce your debt, learn to save.

I'm again reminded of Proverbs 21:17, where it says, "He who loves pleasure will be a poor man. He who loves wine and oil will not be rich," nothing wrong with wine, nothing wrong with oil. But if we live our lives based solely on the pleasure principle and spending everything that comes in quickly without saving, investing, planning ahead, when a downturn comes, when health creates a situation where we can't work, we're going to be in trouble. In fact, we might not survive. And so one of the lessons I think for us to take from the recent crisis that we have been in, to reduce our debt, to save, to learn to survive. We all want to be survivors.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.