Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids.
Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. Proverbs 6:4-5
This is a continuation of the previous three verses on loans and co-signing for them. A number of years ago I spoke with a man who had a different take on loaning money to others. If he could afford it, he would out and out give the person money in the form of a gift. That way, a year down the road when a normal loan would have been repaid (or in process), there are no hard feelings when it’s not repaid, because after all it was a gift and didn’t need to be repaid.
Even if you adopt such thinking, it’s still prudent to examine how the person spends money in general. Has he/she always made good on their smaller loans. What about their credit cards? Are they maxed out all the time? Do they have trouble paying bills? These are all questions that can help you determine whether a person will blow the gift on something other than what it was intended for or whether it was a one time event to get the person over a hurdle.
But as always, pray and ask God to guide you in these decisions, because more often than not, the decision to co-sign or give involves close family members. And that’s never easy.