What will our children inherit?

Teacher: Jeky, why is it you don’t understand English?

Jeky: Teacher, it just goes in both ears and out the other.

Teacher: What do mean, it goes in both ears and out the other, you only got two ears.

Jeky: Well, I am not too good at math either.

P.S. Jeky will be a candidate for political office when he gets older.

Jeky Vaisnix was a spendthrift guy who spent his money like a drunken sailor. Anything he wanted in life, he bought even if he had to borrow money to do it. While he was enjoying the good life, his children were working hard just to put bread on the table, keep heat in the house and the electric turned on in their homes.

In the course of time Jeky couldn’t borrow any more money from the banks so he asked the children for money so he could keep up his lifestyle promising them they would get it all back as inheritance. The children were so naïve they believed him.

The children kept working hard to provide for their own households and loaned the rest to their father being assured it will be there for them when he passes on.

Finally the day came big spendthrift daddy died. It was then reality set in for the children who had been supporting his extravagance. He was in debt up to his eyeballs. The children even had to borrow money to buy a casket for their sorry old man who cheated them out of every spare dollar they had. Instead of receiving an inheritance, they ended up spending the rest of their lives along with their children trying to pay off the debts of big “spendthrift” daddy.

What a shame and a disgrace it is for any father to live such an extravagant lifestyle that his children will have to live in poverty trying to pay off his debts. The Bible says: A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, Proverbs 13:22. Vise versa, a bad man spends his children’s and grandchildren’s wealth.

Let us pray that our generation will live is such a way that our grandchildren will not have to live in poverty in order to pay our debts we leave behind. “Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers.” (Proverbs 19:14). What will our children inherit?

May you have a good week unless you have other plans.

Maranatha. (Maranatha means, “Our Lord Cometh.”)

The Rev. Elton Yutzy is the associate pastor of the Maranatha Community Fellowship Church in Plain City. He can be reached by e-mail at revelton@gmail.com.