August 17, 2006- Do you see yourself as being rich today?
A man is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.
Biblical text: One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. (Proverbs 13:7 NIV).
Fulton Oursler told a story of an old nurse who was born a slave on the eastern shore of Maryland. She had not only attended Fulton’s birth, but that of his mother. He credits her for teaching him the greatest lesson he ever learned about giving thanks and finding contentment.
Recalls Oursler: I remember her as she sat at the kitchen table in our house; the hard, old, brown hands folded across her starched apron, the glistening eyes, and the husky old whispering voice, saying, "Much obliged, Lord, for my vittles."
"Anna," I asked, "what’s a vittle?"
"It’s what I’ve got to eat and drink - that’s vittles," the old nurse replied.
"But you’d get your vittles whether you thanked the Lord or not."
"Sure", said Anna, "but it makes everything taste better to be thankful." Poverty is not a state of the pocketbook for many people, but a state of mind.
Do you think of yourself as being rich or poor today? What is it that you truly count as "wealth" in your life? If you list things that are not material in nature, you are likely very wealthy indeed!
© Australasian Conference Association Limited
