Your worth is more than money
Your worth is not determined by the amount of money you own or make. I say this because we have reached the third month of the year and many of you hoped for changes and new beginnings in January.
Statistics state that by mid-January, most people get discouraged at pursuing their goals for the rest of the year, and by March many people are already thinking about the following year…They postpone everything for the next year. One of the reasons why so many individuals give up easily on their goals and purpose is simply because they weight their personal worth and their ability to carry out goals with the amount of money they have or make. As a result, they constantly say:
-When I get enough money, I will do A,B,C and D (use whatever example that fits your narrative) -Only when I get more money that I will be able to do A,B,C and D
And as time goes on, they remain idle and achieve nothing. Your worth or your ability to carry out goals does not depend on the amount of money you own, have or need.
I wrote a book titled: ‘ A mind free from money dependency’ available on Amazon. And in the book, I explain extensively a different view we need to have about life:
‘let us assume that our lives are similar to a cake. The same cake has many slices that make up for its entirety. In the cake of life the slices that make up for its entirety are love, relationship, intelligence, generosity, creativity, work, family, wisdom, money, and many other slices (depending on each other’s lives). In my analogy, money is only one slice in the cake of life. The money slice is NOT the entire cake and even if the money slice goes missing and if it felt on the floor and cannot be consumed, we can still enjoy the rest of the cake and make something out of it.’ The problem is that many of us tend to consider the ‘slice of money’ as the entire cake to the point of assuming that if the money slice is missing, we cannot make any moves or our lives should just stop. What a dangerous thinking! Now, I know that somebody who is extremely ‘money dependent’ will tell me: ‘Hey Maurice, but the Bible says that money responds to everything
(referenceEcclesiastes 10:19)’
Yes, it is true that the Bible says it. But hold on a second: ‘The Bible says that money responds to everything, but the Bible does NOT say that money has the RIGHT response to everything’
I know this sounds confusing but I will explain: ‘ Suppose that you have a bubbly friend who cannot keep his mouth shut. He always has an opinion about everything and everybody. And whenever you ask him a question, he always has a response. He never says: ‘I don’t know’ but gives a response to everything asked to him’ Well, in such case, simply because your friend gives a response to all your questions, it does not imply that his responses are always right. It is the same thing with money; it will give you either bad or good responses but it will always provide a response (it won’t shut up). As much as money can grant access to food, security, fun, evangelistic support…it can also grant access to commit murder, to ravage war,to commit corruption and many other things. I am not saying that money is bad (if it is what you think I say). BUT on a higher note, I want to encourage you to release your dependency mindset from money so that you can be able to live your purpose and goals whether you are in financial abundance or in financial lack. A few years ago, I was reading a story on Reddit of a man who is forbidden by his ex-father-in-law from seeing his daughter because he was financially poor. The daughter was raised by the grandfather who did not permit his ex son-in-law to visit the little girl under the following excuse: ‘ Because he does not make enough money, he is not worthy to be the father of the little girl’
Here is another story:
’A few years ago, I counseled a man who was struck by a disease. He had a little girl who lived in with her maternal grandmother’. According to our African culture, when a man impregnates a woman out of wedlock, he is bound to pay a symbolic fine to the woman’s family before accessing the right to exercise his fatherhood. The fine is partly meant to cover the dishonor brought on the woman’s family for impregnating her out of weddlock. As I was talking to the man, I realized that he did not have the money to pay but he was allowed to make a phone call to his daughter, and to contact her via other means while he was gathering the money. And I asked him why he never tried to contact his daughter via Facebook, instagram, watsap or even in phone call while he was gathering the money, and this is what he said to me:
‘ I want money first…’ I have plenty stories to share, but the above mentioned stories have one thing in common: ‘we often determine our moves or other people’s moves based on financial worth’. How about this: ‘the government of the country where I live, has recently decided to provide free tertiary education to a certain section of the youth population. But even after such societal committment, comes the end of 2018 or 2019, there will still be young people who qualify for free education and yet they will not study under the silly excuses that say: ‘I did not have transport money to register’ (they will be so lazy to walk, or hike…) ‘I did not have money to print the registration forms’ (they will be so lazy and uncreative to use a free internet café in libraries in order to submit their application online…) No matter how many financial obstacles we take away from the road, if we are still conditioned towards money dependency, we will still fail. We will still look for an excuse to justify inertia.
Read some great excuses generated by the need for more money:
- I can’t go to work because I don’t have transport money : No, on the contrary you should a find a place to stay close to your workplace so you can solve this issue. Or maybe this is a great opportunity to walk to your workplace on a daily basis; it will keep you fit or help you lose weight (and I am not being mean, I am just helpful). Some people are just overweight because of their reliance on the money… - I can’t reach my fitness goals because I ran out of money to pay my gym fees: ' You can still hit the road with your sneakers, it’s free. You can still join so many free sports clubs (karate, soccer, jogging clubs,…), they are free! Since when have we conditioned our mind to believe that having money is the only way to gain muscles or lose weight! This is a purely demonic thinking. - I cannot start my business because I need money to pay for an office: ‘ in 2018, businesses can be ran from home. Your clients won’t really care as long as you can deliver the services they pay for. As you build up your finances, one day you will get an office but for now, get started at home. - I can’t mingle in this social circle because of their higher social class:
‘ do you mean that you are just a bag of money? God created you as a person with a character. You will be surprised at how rich people would do anything to hang with you because of your character, intelligence or wisdom.
Your worth is not in your money. Your life is bigger than money and has a lot to offer even in financial distress. I write this because I know that in this time of the year, many have already lost hope on their goals and purpose simply because of their dependency on money. By tapping into other slices of life, you can become unstoppable.
Stop thinking that money is everything.