Thoughts on Riches

Mission: fit fist into mouth!

In the Book of Mormon, Jacob speaks about riches.

"But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God. And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good--to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry..." Jacob 2:18-19

This passage of scripture has always made me wonder: What exactly defines riches? Is it having a lot of money? I don't really think so. There are many miserable people with lots of money. There are even more people who make lots of money yet waste it all on pointless things. They don't even think of themselves as "rich". They still complain that they don't have enough for their supposed needs.

At a school I taught at, I met many students of different backgrounds. Not a single child in that school had a lot of money. However, some of those students were perfectly content. Others--not so much. I came to realize that there's a difference between not having lots of money and "being poor". It's all about perspective.

Jacob says to seek for the kingdom of God first. I'd like to think that I have done that. I'm not perfect, but I try to keep the commandments. I try to make myself better. Every day, I am reminded how far I still have to go.

What a happy little guy!

So what does it mean to seek for riches? James and I certainly haven't done that, at least, not in the temporal sense. I graduated as a teacher, and he will do the same in 2 years. We already have a baby to take care of. Despite all that, I can't help but think that we really are rich. By seeking the kingdom of God, we have been blessed in many ways. We have a nice place to live. We have food, and it's not PB&J every day. We're getting educations at a decent price and in a good environment. We have a healthy baby and reasonably good health ourselves. I would definitely call those things riches. Why?

Jacob said that, once we've acquired riches, to use them to serve others. We have enough of these things to serve others, so that means we must have been blessed with riches in the first place!

In a way, riches are blessings that we don't really deserve. Since we have never been perfect in living the Gospel, it almost seems to good to be true that we've received so many "perfect" blessings.

The Lord loves us more than we can imagine. We are still like babies: completely dependent on him, yet He will still give us everything we need without repayment. There is no way that a baby can "repay" the service that was given to him/her by a parent. The only way we can repay our parents is to please them the best we can...and give them grandkids. :)