A Personal Investment Program – Sunday, January 30, 1983
Much had been written lately about financial investment programs. Stocks and bonds, tax shelters, money markets, and savings accounts have all been extolled as methods of adding to our financial assets, and as ways to survive the hardships of economic difficulty.
There is wisdom in this advice. Developing and expanding on whatever resources we have is not only a hedge against potential uncertainty, but also adheres to the Christian precept of improvement. The parable of the talents, where the scripture praises those individuals who expanded on their assets through wise investment, expresses the divine principle of eternal progression.
In a very real sense, the need for a wise investment program applies as much to the resources of the soul as to material possessions. Indeed, whatever we add to ourselves—to our emotional, physical, intellectual, and spiritual assets is safer and easier to hold onto than any monetary interest.
Whitman concluded, “All that a male or female does, that is vigorous, benevolent, clean, is so much profit to him or her…[and] charity and personal force are the only investments worth anything,”1
True, sometimes an investment in ourselves is more difficult to make than an investment of a financial nature. No doubt, we have already broken some of our New Year’s resolutions for
self-improvement. Many of us wanted to lose weight; others resolved to finish a college degree or vocational training program; some determined to play a musical instrument, while others decided to work on Christian attributes such as patience or personal charity.
Regardless of the setbacks or discouragements in our personal investment program, however, this truth is unalterable: that which we invest in ourselves pays eternal dividends, dividends which cannot be stolen, lost or devalued. And that which we fail to invest in ourselves is wasted, forever lost in the imaginary realm of good intentions and wishful thinking.
Increasing the assets of our character adds to our immortal personality, is inseparable, becomes what we are, endures to the infinite reaches of existence.
These investments receive interest, have received interest and shall receive interest in the unshakable order of the universe—forever.
1 Whitman, Watt, Leaves of Grass, “Songs of Prudence” Aventine Press, New York, 1931, p 382
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January 30, 1983
Broadcast Number 2,789