I’m Busy Checking My Investments!! The main news topic for the past few days, for sure!!
It is so amazing that twice this summer I heard sermons which were more or less on this topic. They were in two different locations and the speakers did not know each other. Yet, both spoke on a similar topic. I guess God must have thought I needed to hear the message more than once. Then, with all the news this week about investment and economic problems ("problems" is downplaying it) in the USA which are spilling over into Canada, I couldn’t help but share the summaries of these two sermons with you . . . as I have been busy checking my investments. You can have the benefit of my having heard the messages, even if you were not there.
The first one came the last night at our church family camp - and the topic was “Increasing Your Worth”. And the whole sermon led to the conclusion that the only way you and I are going to be worth more tomorrow than we are today is if we invest into the next generation. And the speaker illustrated her thoughts by giving some examples of people who had invested into her life - and that not one of those people who had prayed for her, mentored her, corrected her, had lived to see or hear her in her role as well-known Canadian speaker/minister. I couldn’t help but think of the people who poured into my life as I was growing up - the people who invested in me as a teenager. There was the lady who was my Sunday School teacher all during my teen years, who started every single lesson with the scripture, Romans 12: 1, 2 - “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” I thought it was a little predictable and even a little boring at the time after the fifth or sixth year of hearing it . . . but today, as a “mature” adult, I get it. As they say, do the math, and calculate how many times she read that scripture with us.
And then her husband who was the Sunday School superintendent for all of my growing up years and before I had graduated from High School, saw my potential and asked me to teach a Sunday School class - of teenagers, no less. I don’t know if he ever knew that eventually I became a public school teacher but . . . he invested in me. Then there were the three couples who over a period of my teen years took at least one evening a week and spent with us teens of my church community. Whether or not they ever have known the depth of my gratitude for their investment, I am so grateful. And the list goes on and on. There were the couples who allowed us teens to show up and use their homes for the evening to hang out and maybe cook pizza or something, leaving their houses a lot less neat then when we arrived. They invested in the next generation.
. . . Then about a month ago, in another location, I heard a young man preach an very similar sermon - investing in the next generation. It has jarred my thinking - what am I investing in? I have never been one to do much investing in stocks and bonds or in the “stuff” of this world, but am I investing in others?
Our city is the perfect place to invest in people - our city has had an influx of immigrants of several thousand over the past couple of years. What a place to invest!
Also, our church as a few youth and I worry that I am not investing into their lives in the way that people invested into mine. But, I can pray. And I can invest financially into their camp expenses and youth conventions.
Needless to say, it is a time for introspection. I’ve just barely scratched the surface of this topic. What am I investing in? Will my worth tomorrow be greater than today? A very big question to ponder.
Bless each of you as you ponder with me.
Submitted by Naida
It is so amazing that twice this summer I heard sermons which were more or less on this topic. They were in two different locations and the speakers did not know each other. Yet, both spoke on a similar topic. I guess God must have thought I needed to hear the message more than once. Then, with all the news this week about investment and economic problems ("problems" is downplaying it) in the USA which are spilling over into Canada, I couldn’t help but share the summaries of these two sermons with you . . . as I have been busy checking my investments. You can have the benefit of my having heard the messages, even if you were not there.
The first one came the last night at our church family camp - and the topic was “Increasing Your Worth”. And the whole sermon led to the conclusion that the only way you and I are going to be worth more tomorrow than we are today is if we invest into the next generation. And the speaker illustrated her thoughts by giving some examples of people who had invested into her life - and that not one of those people who had prayed for her, mentored her, corrected her, had lived to see or hear her in her role as well-known Canadian speaker/minister. I couldn’t help but think of the people who poured into my life as I was growing up - the people who invested in me as a teenager. There was the lady who was my Sunday School teacher all during my teen years, who started every single lesson with the scripture, Romans 12: 1, 2 - “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” I thought it was a little predictable and even a little boring at the time after the fifth or sixth year of hearing it . . . but today, as a “mature” adult, I get it. As they say, do the math, and calculate how many times she read that scripture with us.
And then her husband who was the Sunday School superintendent for all of my growing up years and before I had graduated from High School, saw my potential and asked me to teach a Sunday School class - of teenagers, no less. I don’t know if he ever knew that eventually I became a public school teacher but . . . he invested in me. Then there were the three couples who over a period of my teen years took at least one evening a week and spent with us teens of my church community. Whether or not they ever have known the depth of my gratitude for their investment, I am so grateful. And the list goes on and on. There were the couples who allowed us teens to show up and use their homes for the evening to hang out and maybe cook pizza or something, leaving their houses a lot less neat then when we arrived. They invested in the next generation.
. . . Then about a month ago, in another location, I heard a young man preach an very similar sermon - investing in the next generation. It has jarred my thinking - what am I investing in? I have never been one to do much investing in stocks and bonds or in the “stuff” of this world, but am I investing in others?
Our city is the perfect place to invest in people - our city has had an influx of immigrants of several thousand over the past couple of years. What a place to invest!
Also, our church as a few youth and I worry that I am not investing into their lives in the way that people invested into mine. But, I can pray. And I can invest financially into their camp expenses and youth conventions.
Needless to say, it is a time for introspection. I’ve just barely scratched the surface of this topic. What am I investing in? Will my worth tomorrow be greater than today? A very big question to ponder.
Bless each of you as you ponder with me.
Submitted by Naida
posted by Randall | 6:01 p.m.
1 Comments:
Your so right Naida,so many have invested into all of our lives and most times we don't even give them a thought,if we did maybe we would be investing in others....if nothing else ....we could at least pray for them.....do we even do this and if we do ,is it sincere or just because someone says lets pray....the people that invested in us didn't have to be told to do so,they wanted to and they did....thank GOD they did,where would we be now
Coffee
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