Don\u2019t chase money.<\/p>\n
There have been a guesstimated 100 billion humans on Earth and 90 billion of them spent their lives chasing money.\u00a0 <\/span>Point is: it\u2019s common.\u00a0 <\/span>They chased hunting grounds, watering holes, timber, ports, agricultural land, salt, spices, gold, silver, oil, money of a 1000 denominations, mountain passes and trade routes, mineral rights, pelts, diamonds, you-get-the-picture\u2026<\/p>\n Nobody knows who the richest person in Rome was.\u00a0 <\/span>Nobody cares.\u00a0 <\/span>How silly money must look to God.\u00a0 <\/span>He John 3:16ed us for our souls, not our money.<\/p>\n Instead of chasing money, chase the best of you.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s hidden, and requires work.\u00a0 <\/span>As you figure out who you are (and who you aren\u2019t) you want to build a custom life, that fits your talents.\u00a0 <\/span>If you\u2019re lucky, work won\u2019t be work, and home will be safe.<\/p>\n _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As you enter the Land Of Adults you\u2019ve got to answer, for yourself, what the point of life is.\u00a0 <\/span>You don\u2019t have to know it right now, but sooner known the better.\u00a0 <\/span>This answer is your religion.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019ll drive your behavior, your ambitions, your conscience and all your choices, and throughout your life, especially in your gray years, you\u2019ll measure yourself against your religion, and feel respect or shame.<\/p>\n Truth is your friend.\u00a0 <\/span>Trust it, trust it, trust it.\u00a0 <\/span>If it shames you, change.\u00a0 <\/span>If it warns you, heed.\u00a0 <\/span>If it\u2019s uncomfortable, you earned it, so earn something better. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At this stage you\u2019re very aware of what all-your-friends-are-doing. In ten years you won\u2019t know the address of most of these school friends.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s your life.\u00a0 <\/span>The steering wheel is not a committee job. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The highest maturity to aspire to is not measured by age, but by individuality.\u00a0 <\/span>Until you\u2019re the You, you were made to be, you\u2019re just a kid playing with the box the gift came in.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t know a single engineer but thinking about being one?\u00a0 <\/span>Make a call.\u00a0 <\/span>People are flattered to be consulted.\u00a0 <\/span>Ask them what it\u2019s really like.\u00a0 <\/span>Don\u2019t spend four years, six years, eight years climbing a ladder without talking to people up a few rungs on the ladder.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t pick a career that reminds you of buzzards.\u00a0 <\/span>If you only make money when things go wrong you\u2019re on the wrong end of helping to make things go right.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t pick a career that reminds you of spiders.\u00a0 <\/span>If your customer is your victim you\u2019ll be selling your conscience for chump change, and worse, you\u2019ll be crossways with our mutual Father. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s One Father, many children, and He wants us to be nice to each other.\u00a0 <\/span>Your job should always be win-win in the day, which gives you peace upon your pillow in the night.<\/p>\n The more you know about what you value the easier it is to cross some careers off your list.\u00a0 <\/span>Want a one-time marriage and no ulcers?\u00a0 <\/span>There are careers out there where all the big achievers are on their third marriage by forty and on blood pressure meds by fifty.\u00a0 <\/span>If that ain\u2019t for you then stay off the first rung of that ladder. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Old Stuff Works<\/strong><\/p>\n Yadda yadda about degrees, what employers really want is a quality human, who is teachable.\u00a0 <\/span>If you\u2019re honest, dependable, personable, considerate, loyal \u2013 all that old fashioned stuff \u2013 there\u2019s a job for you.\u00a0 <\/span>And because all those traits are in short supply you have the least job competition in the history of American.<\/p>\n Best thing you can do is forget some of what you were taught.\u00a0 <\/span>Like \u201centitlement.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s puredee poop.\u00a0 <\/span>Being alive isn\u2019t entitling; it\u2019s a gift.\u00a0 <\/span>Do something with it, no matter how the cards are dealt.<\/p>\n Be thankful, for life.\u00a0 <\/span>Longer you live the more schooling death will do on you.\u00a0 <\/span>There\u2019s a great random out there, and some of these deaths are gonna ring your bell.\u00a0 <\/span>Especially\u2026the too young, who in your measurement, were your betters.<\/p>\n Beware debt.\u00a0 <\/span>We need water, food, air, clothing and shelter.\u00a0 <\/span>Everything north of that is extra.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In Closing…<\/strong><\/p>\n Value yourself.\u00a0 <\/span>He does.\u00a0 <\/span>So much so that He wants a till-death-do-us-never-part relationship with us.<\/p>\n Listen to your feelings.\u00a0 <\/span>The sight comes later, the nouns come later, the feelings lead us to the truth.<\/p>\n Your conscience is your seeing-eye dog.\u00a0 <\/span>If it\u2019s telling you it doesn\u2019t like what it\u2019s seeing then assume you are in a blind spot, and trust the dog.<\/p>\n Be grateful.\u00a0 <\/span>This is your one \u2018n only life, of uncertain duration.\u00a0 <\/span>To be grateful is to respect The Gift, and to respect The Gift Giver.<\/p>\n You are never alone.\u00a0 <\/span>You are under High and Loving Eyes.\u00a0 <\/span>You have messed up, you will mess up, but you cannot make the Love go out of His eyes.<\/p>\n \u2026and I close with\u2026<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to save the world. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n All you have to do is be You.\u00a0 <\/span>To do that, you have to find out who You are.\u00a0 <\/span>Have fun with that.\u00a0 <\/span>It won\u2019t happen day after tomorrow, but keep at it, because it\u2019s nice to one day reach a place where you say, Hello me! \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This edition of Uncle P\u2019s Bedtime Stories is brought to you by Eighty-one, where our writer learned most of this the hard way. \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Uncle P\u2019s Bedtime Stories are available in book form at Eighty-one, 3507 Ryan St Lake Charles.\u00a0 <\/span>He can be reached at eightyoneantiques@gmail.com.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Don\u2019t chase money. There have been a guesstimated 100 billion humans on Earth and 90 billion of them spent their lives chasing money.\u00a0 Point is: it\u2019s common.\u00a0 They chased hunting grounds, watering holes, timber, ports, agricultural land, salt, spices, gold, silver, oil, money of a 1000 denominations, mountain passes and trade routes, mineral rights, pelts, [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[59,894],"yoast_head":"\n