Blessings are worth a thousand times more than assets that bleed
September 22, 2026
Before the dust dries over the father’s casket, the ground above is already churning. Camps are forming to wrench a chunk of the dead father’s assets.
This goes back 2000 years. Jesus was asked this very question.
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Lk 12: 13-15)
Where does this desire for inheriting the father’s property come from? From the father having property, of course. If the father did not have property - typically honest government officials - there is no dispute. There is nothing to quarrel over. Children focus on educating themselves to secure a future and to cover for their parents if they don’t have a pension or assets to live on.
One such son recalled an incident from his mid-teenage years. His father wanted to grant him shares of a dividend-paying company. His father was getting on in age. He felt it best to settle the affairs of his estate with his children, giving to each what he thought was right for them.
The son told his father to keep the dividend-paying shares to meet expenses. The father kept the shares as willed by his son. In his will, the father allocated that asset to his son. The father died, but the son could not inherit the shares. The will was not registered to transfer the shares to his son.
The son did not rue it. He never considered the shares to be his. He was not afflicted by the curse of “the entitlement mindset”. That he must have a share of the property in equal proportion to the other siblings. To this son, he was good with whatever his father chose to give him. He was more interested in the father’s blessing than the monetary value of assets.
Blessings are for a lifetime. They appreciate over time. Money evaporates. Easy come, easy go. One bad transaction and all is lost. Currency should come with health warnings like cigarette packets. Spending becomes addictive. No good comes out of it except transient pleasures. In some cases, chronic diseases and ulcers, as from tobacco, alcohol or overeating. The consumption economy on overdrive.
Both the share-giving father and the declining son showed amazing charity, thinking only of the good of the other - true love by any definition. The son’s attitude was drawn from:
Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? (Lk 12: 13-26)
John D. Rockefeller Sr. grew up poor and started working as a clerk earning $1.50 a week. His mother, Eliza, taught him to tithe 10% from his very first paycheck. He tracked every penny in a small red notebook called “Ledger A”—a habit he maintained even after becoming the world’s first billionaire. To pass this mindset to his children and grandchildren, Rockefeller Sr. and his son, John D. Rockefeller Jr., instituted a strict accounting system:
The Allowance Rule: Children like Nelson and David Rockefeller received a modest allowance (e.g., 25 to 45 cents a week).
The “10/10/80” Split: Every child was required to keep a personal daily account book modelled after Ledger A. Out of their allowance, they had to:
1. Give 10% to charity/tithing.
2. Save 10%.
3. Detail every remaining penny spent in their ledger.
Earning Extra: To get more money, children had to work—raising rabbits, pulling weeds, or catching flies at fixed piecework rates.
Combined with irrevocable dynasty trusts created in the 1930s, this financial framework allowed the Rockefeller family to maintain both their capital and their culture of stewardship across six generations.
Rockefeller did not suffer the fate of “a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ (Lk 12: 16-19)
Who do we want to be? The son who told his father to keep the dividend-paying shares to help his expenses in retirement? Or the rich man who got very rich and built a larger barn? “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Lk 12: 20-21)
- Mathew Anthony
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