Are you blessed or lucky?

[Traveler]

1 minute ago, MormonGator said:

My family sponsored a garden at a NH hospital so that people in that hospital could unwind for a little bit while getting treatment. We just wrote a check, we didn't actually make the garden. So that wasn't charitable of us? 

You tell me! - If those with the money used all or some of it for something else - what if the money was actually used to addict someone to drugs?

For me charity means more than just giving money and that is the point I am trying to make.  If you really cared about the people in a hospital you would make D-mn sure the money was used for what it was given for.  Sorry for the French.  I just feel that charity (especially when money is involved) is losing its real meaning as the divine love of G-d.

 

The Traveler

[Vort]

2 minutes ago, Traveler said:

I believe that the prophet David O McKay said something like, "All the money in the world will not buy a good wife (spouse or friend) only a bad one."

What a great quote.

I think the idea that money is evil, or even that it is somehow lesser than other carnal things, is naive. That attitude ignores what money actually is: A tokenization of the value of work. The vaat benefit of money is that it allows for a hyperconvenient, one-dimensional estimation of comparative value across a whole range of things. It literally allows modern economies to exist.

Of course, that is also the dangerous thing about money: That it's one-dimensional. Everything must be reduced to a single numeric value. This is fine for houses and bananas and sofas. But what of human life? What of the value of marital commitment, of parent-child bonds, of keeping one's word? What of the value of prayer, if sacrifice, of chastity? What of the value of pure air, of clean water, of healthy communities?

Paul taught that the love of money is the root of all evil. Perhaps Paul overstated the matter--hyperbole is common enough in scripture--but the dogged insistence on the one-dimensional view of value is surely at the root of most if not all of our ills.

But that's not the fault of money per se. It's the fault of those who mistakenly believe that money, or the things money can buy, have any intrinsic value. It, and they, do not.

[Guest MormonGator]

2 minutes ago, Traveler said:

You tell me!

Gladly. You clearly fail to comprehend how the real world works, and have no idea what you are talking about.  Anytime someone give a charity anything-time or money-it's a positive act and benefits of a great many people. Both time and money are equal. 

Edited October 7, 2019 by MormonGator

[Traveler]

3 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

Gladly. You clearly fail to comprehend how the real world works. Anytime someone give a charity anything-time or money-it's a positive act and benefits of a great many people. Both time and money are equal. 

You know what - I do not like the real world; and the more someone tells me about it the less I like it - unless they are a scientist. 😉

 

The Traveler

[Guest MormonGator]

18 minutes ago, Traveler said:

f you really cared about the people in a hospital you would make D-mn sure the money was used for what it was given for.

That's actually a little insulting to insinuate that people who donate their hard earned money somehow care less about the cause than those who just donate time. This isn't just my own circumstances. It's about anyone who donates their money to any charity. You are way off base. 

Edited October 7, 2019 by MormonGator

[Traveler]

4 hours ago, MormonGator said:

That's actually a little insulting to insinuate that people who donate their hard earned money somehow care less about the cause than those who just donate time. This isn't just my own circumstances. It's about anyone who donates their money to any charity. You are way off base. 

Perhaps I am way off base - but I do not believe that anything of eternal value can be purchased with money.  I thought this to be something clearly taught in scripture.  If you have a scripture that clearly teaches otherwise - I would be most interested - it would greatly help me understand my error; especially to see the context. 

Jesus tells us that in the context of the widow's might that it was not about money (especially the amount) but something else - which in the particular case; Jesus says it was symbolic of ALL that she possessed, loved and cared about in her heart.  I just do not see such charity as the same when someone has a home, family, friends and abundance of food (and other things) to go back to.

I know, for myself, I am not charitable.  It is hard to give of myself and things I highly prize and value (which is not money).  Especially compared to those that Jesus (and Paul) referenced and gave example.  I often give a partition of what is important to me and in many cases it is somewhat a sacrifice but I have a hard time calling such charity (especially when there are those that do not seem to appreciate whatever sacrifice I thought I made) and often wonder why it is so easy for others to claim actual charity.  So I wonder - is it I or them that has missed something.

Even with spiritual things - I am a most unprofitable servant (giver) for it seems (is) that whenever I give a real offering of some seeming sacrifice - I receive 10 fold blessings.

 

The Traveler

Edited October 7, 2019 by Traveler