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Welcome To UglyPieCafe.com This web site is dedicated to information and products that improve people’s lives. You are invited to request our newsletter.
Articles include:
What is Provident Living? Many people today are interested in learning more about making better use of their talents, skills, possessions and future, and with the right information will be able to better take care of themselves and their families, and also be a stronger force in their local communities. To live providently means that you are able to prepare for the future carefully, and that you handle your resources frugally. The building blocks of provident living are faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity, and the results of living providently are intelligence, confidence and wealth. This web site and newsletter are dedicated to provident living. The earth is full, let’s enjoy it while we’re here and leave our mark for good, and a legacy for those who follow. Richness Can Be Ours This Earth we live on is rich and full, and contains all we need to live a rich life, and more. Yet many live here in a poor state, unable to perceive or make use of the richness around them. For them, it’s like walking in darkness at noonday, unable to see the opportunities that are strewn at their feet, even stumbling over them and kicking at them like annoying obstacles which distract them from their blissful stroll through a paradise they are unable to comprehend. To some extent all of us display symptoms of poorness and attributes of richness; however, depending on our state of progression, either richness or poorness prevail in our lives and define our existence. For many, richness or poorness is perceived by the amount of money or possessions one may have. Although this is not necessarily the case in reality, in time money and possessions usually follow those who live by the principles of wealth and flee from those who live the principles of poorness. Although money and possessions should not be the primary focus of our every thought and act, the lack of money and possessions does severely limit the rich experience we can have while living here, and also can thwart the goodness we can bestow upon others. I especially like this quote from a man I admire: "Most of us go through life believing that it is the rich who are most likely to be tempted by the love of money. Yet, when we evaluate the situation, we find that those in financial need are the ones who must constantly spend time that could otherwise be used creatively, worrying about funds to pay bills and provide the basics of life. It is the poor who are most likely to go through life without achieving their potential because of the preoccupation with money -- or the lack of it." Dexter Yager In my own younger years I craved richness, but the seeds of poorness prevailed in my life. I pondered many times on the words of another I truly admire, the Lord himself. On Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount He taught many principles of enjoying a successful life, and included a passage that many of us have known and probably pondered also; Matthew chapter 6: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. I believed what the Lord stated here, but was only able to proceed out of pure obedience to the Lord’s direction and listening to whispers of inspiration. In time I began to understand the principles and reap the rewards. I have found a much more elaborate discussion on the subject by Isaiah in chapter 58: 6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? 8 Then shalt thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward (rearguard). 9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, and the putting forth of the finger (pointing, in gesture of scorn), and speaking vanity; 10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: 11 And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. 12 And they that shall be of thee shall build up the old waste places: thou shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, the repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. In verses 6 and 7 Isaiah rehearses some of the things we need to do and the mindset we need to have, and verses 8-11 contain promises that any living person would love to claim. Verse 12 is especially interesting also, in a time when our economy is a constant worry to most and our future is unsure. The fact is, no matter what our national and world economic future holds, there will be those who not only prosper through it, but set the stage for a new beginning and hope for all. Only by following successful patterns proven by those before us and living the teachings we believe in will we be able to enjoy the blessings of true Provident Living.
Kenneth Bruce Heistand Joplin, Missouri 417-437-8809
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