A serious look at practical matters

Up till recently my wife and I have been struggling financially, living from paycheck to paycheck each month with not a lot left over. So things like life insurance, funds for our kids' education and a will simply have not gotten taken care of. Part of this was ignorance. We knew nothing about these things in the Family and what little we did know was very negative.

For example: why write a will? Jesus was going to come before we died and besides, by signing over our lives and money and kids to the Family we already had a "will". Yeah, sure, by having no will of our own and surrendering our all on the altar. But now I'm thinking, if my wife and I die without a will, does that mean my kids become wards of the state? Scary thought. Wouldn't we rather have a trusted brother or sister raise them if we died? So we're looking into that.

Life insurance. Well, in the Family any kind of insurance was "a lack of trusting God." "The birds of the air gather not neither do they store in barns...take no thought for the morrow" etc was used to totally discount what is a very common-sense and frankly necessary part of life. But it wasn't just that thinking that kept us from buying life insurance. It was lack of money. Well now that we have a little extra and our kids are still at home and we're getting older, we've decided to get some. Besides, we're still in good enough health to qualify for it. Why wait till we're sick and then no insurance company will cover us, or will charge higher premiums to cover us? It's high time.

And life insurance is scriptural, by the way. "Go to the ant, consider her ways and be WISE. She gathers her food in the summer" and stores it up. Having funds to look after your family after you die is Scriptual. We need to look after our own families and kids. The so-called "living by faith" seemed so spiritual but it really was irresponsibility and unwise lifestyle. It was Berg disenfranchising us of our independence and rights.

And finally education fund: a year ago my wife and I started putting money away for our kids college education. Since I'm not wild-eyed thinking that all they need is Grade 5, that Jesus is going to return before they graduate, therefore I want to empower them with a good education and break the "barefoot smiling missionary" syndrome. ("What the hell do our kids need an education for? They're going to be missionaries!")

It would be great to have some money in the bank for a rainy day, but at least if we're doing the above, we've taken some sensible steps in the right direction.