Post by Carla Nelson
As I was thinking this morning, a previous revelation re-entered my mind. Some years ago, during my 7-year crisis, hum it’s funny how things come to you during a storm. But that’s the purpose of the storm so you can learn from it (at least that’s my belief). I remember a conversation with my Mother. I was sharing with her that I realized it was my responsibility to setup shop to take care of her, my Grandmother and my Grandfather. Financially they were not prepared to take care of themselves in accordance with a lifestyle they were accustomed to and had the mindset to rely on Social Security. Social Security is supposed to be a stipend; we aren’t supposed to survive on that little bit; that’s play money. Documentation from the government even states this factor. Unfortunately they didn’t and still don’t have that mindset. But by God’s grace I have it. To God be the Glory! So I shared with her that I realized I had to setup not to just take care of them, but that I had to setup in a way so that taking care of them would not be a burden to my family while doing so. A reality many of us face, some unknowingly so.
There it is, a part of the root problem to our wealth transfer problems. Our parents didn’t set up their barns appropriately for various reasons. The main one being lack of knowledge oftentimes because there is no desire to seek it out.
“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.”
In my lifetime I’ve seen people take the scripture about honoring thy Mother and Father and use it as weapon aimed toward their children (unintended manipulation) versus a strategy for long life. And yes, we do have a responsibility to coordinate the care of our parents, how could we even fathom not doing so. Yet oftentimes what happens is being financially responsible for the care of our loved ones and simultaneously our own family becomes a burden and the cycle continues, we keep digging ourselves deeper into an already huge hole. When does it end? From my perspective, it stops when a generation decides to educate themselves and employ their gifts and talents to want more, seek more and thus do more, to produce a surplus to fill that void and setup their own barns appropriately.
“A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children, but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.”
You see the parable in Matthew 25:14 -30 talks about the talents God has given us and how some of us have hidden them and not produced more than what was given. Those talents equate to money. God says he has given us the power to get wealth. But the question is what are we doing with that power?
“But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.”
Our wealth transfer problems reach back way before our existence (the regressive state) and so we have been working with what we’ve been given, inadequacy. So for me, I have realized the ditch is big enough and to stop digging. So yes, many of us have to fill in the ditch left for us. But let’s not just fill it, but make it overflow. Let’s be the change we so needed and can be for our future generations by leaving a legacy of wealth and not lack.
“Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.”
