tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141409251694792478.post5611527733644103886..comments2023-10-11T09:52:47.915-04:00Comments on Geoffrey Janes: A Different Kind of Financial GoalGeoffrey Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679933687034473802noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141409251694792478.post-2011606186626777412009-04-01T13:10:00.000-04:002009-04-01T13:10:00.000-04:00Technically, you can't have "money left over". Wh...Technically, you can't have "money left over". What you have will all go <I>somewhere</I>, be it to your kids, to charities, or elsewhere. You can choose to make it go somewhere specific before you die (via donations and gifts); you can choose to make it go somewhere specific upon your death (via your Will); or you can forgo the choosing altogether. This last option seems to me the most clearly unbiblical. But the first two aren't so clear.<BR/><BR/>It would be easy to argue that leaving a large estate to your kids is an investment in family (the first institution established by God), which could empower them to be more gracious in their own giving. It would be just as easy to argue that doing so fails to teach your children the value of working for and earning what you have, and the power of giving sacrificially instead of merely out of one's excess.<BR/><BR/>So it would seem (as in many things) that avoiding extremes makes the most sense. In death, give not-obnoxiously-sized blessings of your estate to your kids — perhaps incrementally, and/or with contingencies they must meet that demonstrate financial responsibility — but teach them in life the power and joy that comes from giving freely and sacrificially towards "Kingdom work".C. Michael Pilatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05793869252669446487noreply@blogger.com