Wealth

by Joey Davis

As we embark on "Window to the Future," I'd like to share a few stories with you that seem appropriate. . .

. . . In the fourth year of his layoff from his job at General Motors, dad's only Christ as present to mom was a dishwasher.

You have to understand the magnitude of the gift: Our old house had its original wiring and plumbing, and neither could handle the required installation. There was no spot in the small kitchen for such l large appliance. And we hadn't even been able to meet the mortgage interest payments for almost six months.

But Dad hated the thought of washing dishes. He would rather do anything else. And Mom had undergone major surgery that spring, a radical mastectomy for breast cancer, and found it difficult to do any work requiring the use of her arms.

No large box appeared, no new plumbing or wiring was Installed, no remodeling of the kitchen occurred. Rather, a small note appeared on a branch of our Christmas tree, handwritten by Dad. . . "For one year I will wash all of the wishes in this household. Every one!"

And he did. He really did. (Judy Rogers - Westerville. Ohio)

"but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. " 2 Corinthians 8:5

On the flip side. . .

For many years Hetty Green was called America's greatest miser. When she died in 1916, she left an estate valued at $100 million, an especially vast fortune for that day. But she was so miserly that she ate cold oatmeal in order to save the expense of heating the water. When her son had a severe leg injury, she took so long trying to find a free clinic to treat him that his leg had to be amputated because of advanced infection. It has been said that she hastened her own death by bringing on a fit of apoplexy while arguing the merits of skim milk because it was cheaper than whole milk.

"For what will a man be profited if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matthew 16:26

Whether we want to believe it or not, how we spend our energies and blessings are a testimony to the entire world as to who, and whose, we are. May we use our wealth to bring glory to God. After all, the real measure of wealth is how much we'd be worth if we lost all of our money.

• Is It Wrong To Have Riches? -Dec 03, 2000
• Giving Our Best -Apr 09, 2000
• More Blessed to Give Than Receive -Jan 31, 1999
• Don't Charge It: Change It! -Aug 18, 1996
• Greed -Dec 03, 1995