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There is No Money in Heaven<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cA hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be a better place, because I was important in the life of a child.\u201d (changed from the original quotation from \u201cWithin My Power\u201d by Forest E. Witcraft)<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n My birthday is a little over a month from now. I\u2019m not much one to celebrate my own birthday. It never seemed like much of a cause for celebration \u2013 at least not since I was eighteen. And I suppose at 18 there are many good reasons to celebrate: you have an entire lifetime in front of you and your entire childhood behind you \u2013 but not very far behind you.<\/span><\/p>\n And, by law, in most places, when you turn eighteen, you are an adult. So, while my eighteenth birthday is a bit blurry in retrospect, I probably did celebrate it with a lot of youthful \u201centhusiasm\u201d. But I can\u2019t remember ever being really excited about any birthday I\u2019ve had since then.<\/span><\/p>\n The older we get the fewer birthdays we have to look forward to, I guess. When you\u2019re younger this doesn\u2019t seem to be a factor, but as we age, birthdays become more of a time for reflection than celebration. At least in my life, they are.<\/span><\/p>\n This year as my birthday approaches, I think about my life and things I\u2019ve accomplished, and things I wish I wouldn\u2019t have done. Oh yes, there are many things I shouldn\u2019t have done, and looking back on them makes me feel foolish. I like to think I have no regrets, but I do. <\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve always thought that regrets, like worries, are useless things. They are like trying to sail a boat with its anchor dragging. If you\u2019re dragging an anchor around all the time, you\u2019re going to have a difficult and arduous journey. You\u2019re going to have a tough time getting where you\u2019re going. You must hoist the anchor and put it where it belongs. You\u2019ll never reach your goals or even dream exciting dreams if you\u2019re dragging an anchor around. You cannot reach goals or accomplish remarkable things if you\u2019re dragging around the weight of a bunch of regrets and worries.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the things I think about is how much money I should have (and could have) put away during my life and didn\u2019t. I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m sort of the guy who marches to a different drummer… anyway, money to me is just a \u201cthing\u201d. I\u2019ve always believed that things can be replaced. Therefore, money never had a significant value to me. Things that can\u2019t be replaced have always been my most treasured possessions \u2013 love, faith, friends, hope.<\/span><\/p>\n Still, I do have my little daydreams: I\u2019ve often dreamed, like most people do, of winning a big lottery and becoming an instant multi-millionaire. The older I get though, the more I think I don\u2019t know what I\u2019d do with ten or twenty million dollars. At this point in time, millions of dollars wouldn\u2019t change my life much. I never much cared for fancy cars, I\u2019ve had my one and only experience with boats, I wouldn\u2019t quit the work I do because I enjoy it, and I don\u2019t have many things I can think of that I really need or really want. I guess winning $10 million would be more of a burden than a blessing. I suppose fighting off the stockbrokers, real estate agents, salesman, insurance companies, and all the other people who have a higher regard for wealth than I do would irritate me and I\u2019d have to hide from them. That wouldn\u2019t be fun at all. If I won the lottery, I\u2019d make sure my children were provided for and give the rest to charity. Or would I? I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever have to make these decisions and that\u2019s a good thing! I might be somehow and forever changed by the money. And that\u2019s a bad thing, I think.<\/span><\/p>\n My nonchalant attitude toward money means that I have not put much away for that proverbial \u201crainy day\u201d. I don\u2019t have a big retirement account. I don\u2019t have gold stashed. I don\u2019t have much in the way of any kind of portfolio. I don\u2019t have large real estate holdings. So, I guess I\u2019m a bigger fool than even I think I am. I\u2019m sure many would think so.<\/span><\/p>\n But\u2026looking ahead a little:<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes I think about myself spending my final years in some cheap nursing home and yes that sort of bothers me a little. But I love to read and dabble at chess, so maybe even in the run-down institution to which I may be headed may be somewhat tolerable. My rationalizing, however, insulates me a bit. I think that when that day comes, I hope I won\u2019t remember much of anything \u2013 like for instance who I am. It will make things easier if my kids warehouse me and I don\u2019t know who they are or who the heck I am.<\/span><\/p>\n Life makes adjustments and allowances for things like that. My grandma used to tell me that \u201cthe Lord never gives you a burden larger than you can carry\u201d. I hope she\u2019s right. We\u2019ll see.<\/span><\/p>\n I guess I haven\u2019t done a lot of things I should have done in my life. I certainly haven\u2019t built a golden nest egg \u2013 I have little money put away. However, the other day it occurred to me that there is no money in heaven. And, no, I\u2019m certainly not sure I\u2019m going to heaven, but still, I\u2019m just as certain that they don\u2019t use money in the other place, either. So, wherever I go (and I hope it\u2019s heaven) one thing I know: I won\u2019t need any money. It\u2019s an all-expenses-pre-paid eternal journey \u2013 no money required. Ever. No matter which direction I am headed.<\/span><\/p>\n So, I admit that I haven\u2019t put much aside for the future. At least not in the way of material things. But let me tell you what happened on my birthday last year that taught me that I\u2019ve put aside something much more important than money. I\u2019ve done a few things right in this up-and-down life of mine. At least, I like to think I have.<\/span><\/p>\n The best birthday present I\u2019ve ever received was the one I received a few years ago. It wasn\u2019t wrapped in a fancy package \u2013 but it was a surprise. My two boys took time an entire evening out of their busy lives to spend it with me. They took me to an extravagant seafood buffet on the lake. And besides one of the best meals I\u2019ve ever had in my life, my two boys went together and bought me a present I\u2019ve used almost every day since \u2013 a Roku and a Netflix subscription.<\/span><\/p>\n The dinner and the present were nice, but the greatest thing was something that cost nothing but meant everything \u2013 my two grown boys treating their father to a night to remember. I can\u2019t put in words how much that meant to me.<\/span><\/p>\n Because it is not something you can see or touch, or put away in a drawer, it will never grow old or wear out. I can have it anytime I want it just by remembering a day in my life when my sons thought enough of me to go out of their way to give me a birthday present that I will never forget \u2013 as long as I live.<\/span><\/p>\n And who knows, maybe- just maybe – even longer than that.<\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t have a lot of money, but I am blessed, and I am very wealthy. Am I not?<\/span><\/p>\n Now, several years have passed since that birthday and I\u2019ve had a chance to reflect a little more on this process of growing older and (I hope) wiser. <\/span><\/p>\n My bank account hasn\u2019t grown much. My \u201cportfolio\u201d is still non-existent. I haven\u2019t invested much money in anything. Some people might call me a fool. Others, I\u2019m sure, think I\u2019m a loser. But with sons like mine, I\u2019m far from a loser. I am a rich and lucky man. Money or no money… every one of us knows that people with millions of dollars can still be losers.<\/span><\/p>\n My investments have been well made. The dividends they have returned are priceless. I don\u2019t have much in the way of money or material things, but I am a very wealthy man indeed<\/span><\/p>\n The investments I made when my children were young are yielding dividends far beyond anything I could have imagined. I didn\u2019t invest a lot of money. I invested a great deal of time. And I spent a lot of time with both of my sons, not because of any fatherly obligation. I spent time with them because I really, really wanted to. <\/span><\/p>\n And I enjoyed every minute of it.<\/span><\/p>\n Now they\u2019re grown and I still miss the school plays, Christmas concerts, spring concerts, and the Little League ballgames. I miss watching movies with them on weekends. I even miss watching their favorite TV shows with them even though most of their \u201cfavorite\u201d shows weren\u2019t exactly my cup of tea. I miss putting them to bed and kissing them goodnight. I miss long, lazy weekend mornings when we\u2019d just sit at the table and talk. In short, I miss the time we spent together when they were younger.<\/span><\/p>\n So, the world may look at me and see me as just another average guy. And maybe the world sees me as a loser.\u00a0 I don’t have fancy cars or fancy boats and I don’t go jet-setting off to Casablanca for the weekend. I haven\u2019t accumulated much in the way of possessions. That\u2019s for sure. But, I have more than many billionaires, and I wouldn\u2019t trade my fortune for theirs.<\/span><\/p>\n I hope that those of you with children or grandchildren are investing wisely. While it might be nice to have a stockpile of valuable things, the most valuable things are intangible things. There is no greater return on your investment than the return you get from the time you invested in your children. You\u2019ll get back far more than you ever dreamed. You\u2019ll be rich even if you don\u2019t have a penny to your name.<\/span><\/p>\n Where your treasure lies there will be your heart also. I am one-hundred percent certain of one thing…<\/span><\/p>\n There is no money in heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is No Money in Heaven \u201cA hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be a better place, because I was important in the life of a child.\u201d (changed from the original\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[1720],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21555"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21557,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21555\/revisions\/21557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}