By Kathy Soper
One scripture passage that always haunts me is Mormon 8:37-39, especially these lines from verse 37:
For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.
I teach a small Family Relations class in Sunday School. Last week, during our Money Management lesson, it was pointed out how readily we think of ourselves as poor (in temporal goods), when in reality we’re all filthy, stinking rich.
We’ve got big houses (which we could plug in for “churches” in that verse above), multiple cars/TVs/computers, new clothes we don’t need, and countless things of comfort and/or status we accumulate.
One class member shared an experience, recently related by his missionary son, regarding a Chilean family he helped move into a home with a concrete floor and indoor plumbing. As we heard about this family’s gratitude and jubilance concerning their luxurious new surroundings, all of us felt truly sobered and humbled by our relative affluence, and the lack of care we often show for those in need.
I struggle continually with my reluctance (or even refusal) to go without extras so that others may have necessities.
Of course, defining “extras” is a sticky part of the problem. Back in the days when my husband and I had a social life other than each other, we often discussed this issue with some friends of ours. We each defined “extras” as “more than I’m used to having,” referring not to our starving-student surroundings, but to thefully-stocked homes we grew up in (and even that standard now seems outdated, given the bounty of new toys available).
We wondered, how much should we give to the poor? Or, a better question, how much should we give up for the poor’s sake? What standard of living should we consider indulgent? We knew we needed the Lord’s guidance to shape our individual decisions, but we also admitted that we might not really want to hear what the He had to say.
I know that giving money isn’t the only way to help the poor and needy, or even the most important part. Time, attention, energy — all are needed, and I face similar questions about these intangibles as I do about cold hard cash.
It’s easy to get a bit masochistic about this, and I haven’t found wallowing in guilt feelings to be very productive. The choice to not give more does not necessarily constitute a lack of love for those in need. We need to be careful not to deplete ourselves by being overzealous. And it’s easy to downplay what we’re already giving in our family and ward spheres. Still, I often think about Mormon’s stinging rebuke, wonder what I truly love, and worry about what some of my choices reveal.
—————————————
Kathy Soper is a full-time mother of 6 living in the Salt Lake Valley
We welcome submissions from our readers. Find out how to submit your post for consideration: Guest Post Submission