Your Money Hangup

FRI., SEPT. 2, 1994, 6:52 AM
FARM, STUDY

This is a subject about which I have spoken to you many times throughout these years of Teachings. I could be critical and carp at your for not acting as I have advised. You, yourself, have proclaimed that a person should not be bound by past experiences. On the other hand there is much talk these days in your culture about “family values.” Is this money matter a hangup or just the evidence of a family value well learned and retained? What do I say this beautiful early Fall morning, when your fingers dids’t write well about money and finances.

I’ll say again what you have learned from Me… there’s not much in Scripture that relates directly to financial matters in your culture. Yours is quite a complex system and various moral principles seem to give different standards for what ought to be. The fundamental truth, of course, is that all that you have comes from Me, no matter what objective observation and reasoning seems to say.

You are paid by a State institution, with its money coming from taxes and tuition. You teach classes and do other professorial tasks, so it seems as though you earn your salary. Because you have been here longer than younger colleagues you are paid more… but is that right? Was it right that you were paid less when you were younger? When you were “producing” more academically valued publications should you have been paid more than you were? Shouldn’t your regular publication of Our Ruminations be seen as worthy of merit?

The truth is that you are paid well, and you normally have the capacity to pay all of your bills comfortably. Am I responsible for this? Ultimately, yes. I have guided you through your career and to this place. You have cooperated well, certainly, but the position you are in now is only partially of your doing. My influence is not direct… I do not determine the exact amount of any raise you receive… but I watch over you constantly. And this includes a watch over Lenore’s business and her monetary dealings.

So, fundamentally, the money you have should not be saved for your own personal use if there is a better use for it. And what could be better than helping sons in their financial downturns? You are helping them, their wives, and the children who are your family’s next generation. You agree that there is a good argument for giving from your excess to help those special families.

Your hangup seems to be related to your age and the ages of your needy sons. Your “family value” is that by this time in their lives they should be providing for their own needs or keeping their spending to what they have. You must remember that you were 34 years old when you came here, and had to borrow money from your parents, who were just slightly younger than you are now. They had no retirement fund to look forward to, as you have… except what they had saved and invested. You didn’t pay the money back, and therefore you don’t anticipate that you will be paid back. You remember your struggles with bill-paying, and you know your sons will have to pay back other sources before you… for you are not in need of it.