EXAMPLE
The most valuable gift you can give another is a good example.
"For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you." (John: 13:15)
In his autobiography, Armand Hammer, known as much for his humanitarian efforts as for being chairman and CEO of Occidental Petroleum, an advisor to presidents from Roosevelt to Reagan, and an industrialist, reveals the roots of his giving spirit: "My father had become a prominent and greatly loved figure in the area. . .It was an almost ecstatic experience for me to ride with him when he was on his doctor's rounds. Patients greeted him at their doors with such a warmth that waves of pride and honor would surge in me to find myself the son of such a father, a man so obviously good, so obviously deserving of the affection he received. He could have, however, made himself many times richer if he had insisted on collecting all of his bills; or if he could have restrained himself from giving money away; but then he would not have been the man he was." "I have seen, in his office, drawers full of unpaid bills for which he refused to demand payment because he knew the difficult circumstances of the patients. And I heard innumerable stories from patients about leaving money behind to pay for the prescriptions he had written when he visited people who were too poor to eat, let alone pay the doctor." What a wonderful legacy to leave your child...the "business" of loving and giving to others.
LT S. Edwards, CHC, USN
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