Making a Life

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. ~Winston Churchill

I see people who live in one of these two ways. It is rare that I find someone who can do both effectively. They either live for the hard to earn dollar, or they live to help others around them. It is hard to focus on both of these at the same time. They tend to fight against each other.

Most people are worried about what they have to do to make money to keep a roof over their head and food in the mouths of their family. They don't usually have the time to think about other people. They don't take the time to stop to see what other people around them might need. They are only worried about themselves, which they have the perfectly reasonable right to do. They should think about their family first. That is their priority.

I have seen other people give away their lives to help those in need. I have seen people give away food and go hungry because some stranger looked like they needed it more than they felt they needed it. I have seen people use the majority of their paycheck to pay others people's light bill and never have any savings of their own. They have a heart of a giver, the heart to help those they feel are less fortunate than themselves. The problem is they never get anywhere in life because they give away everything.

I think there should be a happy median. In fact I think there should be a priority to how you deal with life. I think you should make as much money as you can, use that money to pay for your life, make yourself debt free and set yourself up so you don't have to worry about bills, then use whatever is left to help as many people as you can.

I am not saying you can't help other people along the way. You should have a giving heart, but I think you should think of yourself and your family before you go out and give away what you have earned to make your life easier.

Whose to say that we could not give other things other than money while we were getting our lives straightened out. We can always give of our time. We have 24 hours in every day. We should give some of those hours to helping other people freely and without expecting anything in return. Sure time is money, but time is all we have. Se can always make unlimited amounts of money. We can only give up to 24 hours each day. We might as well make that time count for something.