Article: A Blessed Inheritance

Location:	Giving / Tithing

A Blessed Inheritance
by Gordon MacDonald for Generous Giving

The blessed inheritance has built-in boundaries: God is invited into the equation and the moral restraints and convictions of the mature heart are in place.

From the deep pockets of spiritual tradition comes this observation from the compiler of the Proverbs. Doubtless it is built not only upon observation but also upon the stories told among friends and passed down through the generations.

Imagine a young person born into wealth and power. What happens if he or she suddenly inherits it all at an early age? The writer of Proverbs warns, there is danger ahead. He has seen too much not to know that in such times, caution is prudent.

The Bible continually reminds us that money has a potentially corruptive influence. Like fire, it can quickly assume control, particularly when there is an absence of experience, of maturity, of intentional living. In cases like these, money is likely to lead to disaster.

Today we read of young entrepreneurs who have accumulated dazzling amounts of money by selling a company or offering an IPO. At the time this proverb was formulated, however, very few people acquired great wealth through an overnight bonanza of financial success. In those days, wealth came slowly and was hard-won (unless it was gained surreptitiously through forms of crime and violence).

The one exception to this would have been the way of inheritance: one generation passing wealth to another. However, in most cases the parent would have passed on to that child certain core values long before the money was given to him (or her). When character precedes affluence, the corruptive influence of wealth can be avoided. When the appropriate disciplines are instilled to ensure proper character development, an inheritance becomes a blessing because the recipient knows how to handle money respectfully and humbly.

On the other hand, when money is in abundance and character is not, the end of the story is never a happy one. The writer of Proverbs points out that when character and maturity are absent, the destructive force of money erupts, and the potential good of that inheritance is squandered: spent recklessly, invested unwisely, lost swiftly. Not blessed!

The blessed inheritance has built-in boundaries: God is invited into the equation, sound counselors are invited to bring managerial perspective, and the moral restraints and convictions of the mature heart are in place. Generous givers who want to instill godly values in the next generation must begin early; that is the only way to ensure that their benefactors will maintain a spiritual “core” that will protect both the wealth and themselves.

© Generous Giving, 2002. Used by permission of Generous Giving. All rights reserved.

Generous Giving is an educational stewardship ministry that seeks to encourage givers of all income levels—as well as ministry leaders, pastors and teachers and professional advisors—to fully understand and embrace what it means to live generously, according to God's word and Christ’s example.

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