When You Don’t Know You Are Poor
What it means to be poor.
How do you know if you are poor?! The definition of poor is this: lacking sufficient money to live at a standard considered comfortable or normal in a society; “people who were too poor to afford a telephone”. Therefore, one needs to decide what is “standard”, “comfortable,” or “normal” in a particular society to decide if they are indeed wealthy or not. It’s relative because what you might think is comfortable might not suit me and vice versa.
The opposite of poor is wealth, which is “an abundance of valuable possessions or money.” The dictionary forgets to mention that true wealth cannot be measured in numbers or possessions.
John D. Rockefeller was asked, “How much money is enough?” He replied, “Just a little bit more.” When what we have is still not enough, we are poor indeed.
Wealthy with little
By the community’s stands, I grew up poor. We closed off rooms in the house to stay warm in the winter. We found Jack Frost on the inside of the kitchen windows every winter morning. Our lunch boxes were repainted every couple of years to be used again and again. We had not enough money to buy more.
When there is only enough money for one item for Christmas, you know. When store-purchased snacks and foods are off-limits, you wish you had more.
Only thing is, when you’re a kid, you don’t know you are poor.
Because you aren‘t. Not really.
Worth, not wealth
When you have value as a child and as an individual, it is worth more than wealth. When your worth includes being a part of a family who is there to love you and support you when life is dark, you have enough.
And, when your giftings and abilities are appreciated and used, you realize how valuable you are to the whole, and you realize you have so much more.
You realize, looking back, how much you had when you wished you have more. How little you knew about wealth and worth when you thought you needed more.
And you come to realize that you are only truly poor when you wish that you had more. Share on X
