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As a blogger, I scour the web for great blogs. One of my personal favorites is Becoming Minimalist by Joshua Becker.
Back in the day when I was heavily into overspending, I had no idea what minimalism even meant. As I’ve progressed down the debt free path and into a different lifestyle, I enjoy reading his blog because it’s thought-provoking; makes me take a step back and further evaluate my current spending habits, and challenges me to consider my already frugal ways. If I wanted to take my lifestyle down the pure minimalistic pathway, Joshua Becker’s blog tells you how to do just that.
So imagine my surprise when reading his blog the other day that his opening line stated, “The love of money is the root of all evil.”
The first word out of my mouth was ‘wow’ because I could barely believe his take on the subject.
He went on to challenge the readers with the idea of, ‘what if the desire for money could be entirely removed from our lives?’
First let me say that money is NOT as important as relationships. Many people pursue money, ignoring the people in their lives and find themselves discontent and unhappy. Maybe they work, work, work to create a certain lifestyle, only to find themselves struggling with depression and anxiety.
Fostering and creating meaningful relationships is the core of a happy and content life. I’ve yet to hear someone proclaim at the end of their life, ‘I wish I had made more money.’
With that being said, we live in a world where money is necessary. You can’t pay your mortgage without it, or buy food without it, or do any philanthropic work without it, so although the concept is nice, we don’t live in that world and probably won’t see it in our lifetime.
[tweetthis]Money is important if for nothing more than meeting basic needs.[/tweetthis]
Is the love of money the root of all evil? Money is just another form of energy, and it’s what we attach to it that becomes the problem. Money just sitting there, is just money sitting there.
We as human beings do need to be careful.
I know lots of people who are multi-millionaires. Some are the most generous people I’ve ever known. They are generous with their time, resources, and their friendship. They are not focused on the collection of wealth, but wealth has quickly come into their lives.
I also know people who are broke and struggling. I believe their resentment of those who have more prevents them from breaking out of the chains of poverty. Their attitude and mindset are their roadblocks to getting even their basic needs met.
Money doesn’t change you it only enhances who you already are. If you’re a generous, kind and giving person, those qualities will be magnified. If you’re a jerk, you’ll just be a bigger jerk with money.
There’re many sides to this and the best anyone can do is to keep their relationship with money in check. To not make the acquiring of it more important than anything else. And, if you’re fortunate to have more than the average person, to do good deeds with it, and make the world a better place.
