[wayoverontheright]

He relished the role of being an easy touch. But everyone, it seemed -- family, friends, fellow worshipers and strangers -- was putting the touch on him.

The manner in which the money is ACQUIRED is the reason any and everyone who knows the winner feels free to ask for, and in the case of family, EXPECT a chunk of it. HARD-EARNED money doesn't carry this expectation of its recipient.

I feel sorry for lottery winners, and I think a study would prove that most die miserable. I will not buy a lottery ticket because I am afraid I wll WIN.

[ALWAYSWELDING]

I buy a lottery ticket now and then. Sometimes skip years in a row, and sometimes two in a month. I however, am not poor. It is a tax on the poor. My brother, I can tell, does not think I should buy them at all. Perhaps. I can think of all the mooches that would be at my door if I did win, and they would be plentiful. I tend to be charitable, but I would tell them to go bob for snapping turtles. I don't even own a credit card because I believe I ought to pay for things when I buy them. The problem is, most people who play are pretty irresponsible in the first place, thus their "need" to hope in a lottery. Overall it's not a good thing. Not a good thing at all.

[Oreo Kookey]

"I feel sorry for lottery winners, and I think a study would prove that most die miserable. I will not buy a lottery ticket because I am afraid I wll WIN"

I live by that very sentiment. I am not a particular whiz with the money I do have. I appreciate the supply the Lord has given and yet I am not the best steward of that supply. I would not trust me with the big bucks and I don't think the Lord would either. Besides that, I know He isn't in the "get rich quick" business. A man who won't work shouldn't eat, He says.

It is so much better to live according to His rules than making up our own as we go along. We aren't nearly as good at it.