Money Is an Empty Bucket
Money is like an empty bucket. It is fundamentally empty. A single-use container that we fill with something. It is very easy to think of “stuff” when thinking of what we fill it with, but the amazing thing about money is that we fill it with our values, and the stuff we buy is merely a reflection of those values. Put differently, we decide the value of our money. How we use our money reflects our values perfectly. So money doesn’t grow on trees, but value grows inside of us, so if we change our values, we can increase or decrease the value of our money.
an original thought…
It is a very common thing in our American society to pursue and discuss how to make money reproduce and make more money through investment. But what I have never heard before is the reality that the value we fill our money with is also reproducing naturally. When you buy something, it causes someone somewhere to produce that same kind of thing again. So the values we fill our money with produce actions from others in accordance with those values.
I have heard that faith can move mountains. Well, money is an instrument of faith. It reflects and activates what we truly believe. There’s often a stark difference between what a person would like to think they believe and what they actually believe, but how we use their money is a ruthlessly honest reflection of where our faith really lies.
a point of irony…
So now consider those who believe they can improve their lives by pursuing more money. If money is just a bucket, they’re pursuing something empty they’re going to fill with their values, and what they fill their money with will reproduce in their lives, so if they pursue more money to change something about their lives, the ironic result is that they only amplify what is already in their lives. This underscores the truth that the only way to genuinely improve your life is by changing what’s inside of you, not by increasing what’s outside. The outsides get expressed from our insides.
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