Friday, March 27, 2015

No, I can not..

Everyday someone asks me can I post this or post that for them for them to make money or gain notariety. No, I can not.

Everyday someone asks can I donate to their dream, hobby, passion, fantasy. No, I can not.

Actually, I've given thousands of dollars to people's dreams, hobbies, and passions. It hasn't returned to me void because God is constantly blessing me, but I realized something in the process.

I give from my heart and expect nothing in return only when God puts it on my heart to do so. I know where my blessings come from.

The internet and cable television has made us lazy. I just saw a post that said "people will watch EMPIRE for an hour every week but won't spend 20 minutes learning how to build one." That's the truth for 99.9% of the people watching empire.

I was online yesterday and saw a GoFundMe page for a vacation trip to Miami.

We have become lazy. The bug is contagious and you have to make sure you don't catch it. Laziness is a curse. Laziness will come back to haunt you. You have to be very careful what you ask for and very careful what you accept. The borrower becomes servant to the lender ~Prov 22.7. Get up and work. If you want it, work for it. If you can't afford it, work for it. If you have to work for years, keep working! If you ask for something, be willing to give something in return. Nothing is free in life so don't expect anything for free.

You can't expect someone to take their hard earned money and give it to you for your passion. You're asking them to fund your passion from their sweat equity. It doesn't work like that. What are you giving back? The internet has made it too easy for us to beg. If you're going to ask for something, give something in return.

I was reading in the bible in Genesis chapter 14 and around the 20th verse a King was trying to give a gift to Abram. Then Abram told him that he swore to God that he wouldn't accept anything from the King, not even a thread or a shoelace so that the King wouldn't be able to say "I made Abram rich." Genesis 14:23.

I took a lesson from that. Accept nothing from man without a fair exchange. If you accept handouts and free gifts without giving something in return, people will take claim to your success.

Owe no man anything but love. Romans 13:8.

I asked a lady in the TV industry could I have some of her time to ask some questions. She has worked at high levels in television for many years. We spoke and she spoke into my life. After the call I asked her for her paypal email. She gave it to me and I sent her $100. I don't know if we spoke for 30 minutes or an hour but I sent her $100 as an offering for her time. Time is more valuable than money but the least I can do is help someone pay a bill or feed their family in exchange for their time. She will not be able to say that she made me, nor will I owe her anything but love.

I have graphic designers who do things for me like change a word on my website. If I need one word changed, I send my designer $10. It will only take him 5 minutes to do it and most people in America don't even make $10 an hour but I give him $10. I do it to say thank you for taking out time away from your wife and kids to assist me. He will never be able to say I owe him or that he made me who I am because everything he did, he was paid for it.

I do not accept free, respect free, or appreciate free. Man is not God. Man gives gifts with a snare. There is nothing free because we are not wired for free. Even when we are giving something for free we are expecting it to be returned by the "universe" or God. We do not sow and expect not to reap. We sow and we expect to reap. So I know that if someone gives me something, they will be expecting something in return at some point. They will remind me of what they did for me. They will remind me of where I come from and if they were there with me, they want me to remember that. If they did anything for me while I was there and it helped me get here, I bless them for it. I don't want to work for free nor do I want anyone to work for me for free.

Shift your mindset from scarcity to abundance. You have all you need. If it's not with you right now, it's on the way. You don't need anything free from man. If man helps you, get in a position to give back. There is a story in the bible in 1 King 10 of where Queen Sheba visits King Solomon. She is coming to him for wisdom. She's coming to test him to see if what she's heard about him is true. She asks him questions and he gives her answers. The answers were easy to him because God granted him so much wisdom. He was doing basically what a real life coach does. After receiving the wisdom from Solomon she gave him millions of dollars worth of gold and other gifts. He also gave to her, anything that she asked. In that story is another example of how we should never take someone's time or kindness for granted. Stop thinking someone owes you something. Stop expecting or wanting something free. Give an offering. You may only have $10 to give but give that $10 just to show that you are grateful for the time this person has given you. I live by that. Even when I was broke, I gave something in return for time.

I have people who call me or write me all the time for my time. I have a wife and two sons who need all of my extra time, but people call me for advice all the time. People have taken hours and hours of my time and expected me to be able to live off of the the oxygen I was breathing during those hours. So many of them never considered the money I missed while giving them advice that they won't use. They didn't consider the time I was taking away from my wife and kids to give them my time. They didn't consider that I would never get that time back. The least they could have done is blessed me for my time so that I could bless my wife and sons. Especially because we are not friends. I'm not speaking of friends because that exchange between friends is mutually beneficial because friendship is a blessing. I'm speaking of people who call me as a professional but expect me to operate in my profession for free. Those are people I lose respect for. Those are people who I refuse to be like.

We take people's time and their hard earned money for granted. If you want to be blessed and be blessed more abundantly you have to respect time and money.

Nothing is free. Be careful what you ask for.

Blessings,
Tony G.

7 comments:

  1. I like how you discussed the concept of reaping and sowing. I wish more people could hear your message.

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  2. We share the same view. Life is time. Time is money. Money can not buy time.

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  3. Tony, you're called today to help evolve today's generation. There's so many ignorant individuals who will actually take issue with the way informed people reason when it comes to living this life as a Christian, but you know what "they" say, the unknown is pure pleasure. See, what they don't know is that EVERYTHING we think is such a hard pill to swallow, is only placed upon us as a test so we get acclimated with the word of God in his word, the good old Bible. People, all the answers are there, read the amplified version if you're not so discerning. I bless Jesus name because I believe he's working through you on the behalf of revelation.

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  4. This truly blessed my morning.

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  5. Love it! Praying that more people will understand that!

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  6. PRICELESS, I want to pay you for that!!

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