Coping With Insufficiency

Poverty is a related term, meaning different things in various lands and cultures. one English dictionary defines poverty as anything from extreme want of necessities to an absence of material comforts. It's sobering to realize that no matter how poor you maybe, there are likely others who suffer even greater deprivations.

And of course it is not necessarily wrong to seek better living conditions but when your goal is wealth at any price you can easily find yourself tempted to compromise your believes and moral standards. Also, circumstances beyond your control can also quickly deplete your hard earned money, leaving you poorer than ever.

Proverbs 23:4-5 warns, "Do not toil to gain riches ... Have you caused your eyes to glance at it, when it is nothing? For without fail it makes wings for itself like those of an eagle and flies away toward the heaven.

This doesn't meant that you should simply surrender to hopelessness. One positive steps you can take is to focus, not on your deprivations but on your assets.
True, you may have few possessions, but someone who is poor in financial terms may have other resources, such as a loving family, friendly neighbours or a happy place to live.

Really such assets are more valuable than money. A proverb says better is a dish of vegetable where they is love than a manger-fed bull and hatred along with it.