BASED ON FAITH: A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE. WHAT IS INCLUDED IN YOUR ESTATE?

I have practiced Estate Planning for quite some time and especially at first, I was primarily focused on learning the law and crafting my practice.  But I also  did not want to make decisions that were in opposition to what I thought the Bible teaches.  I think that most “Christians” have this mindset.  I also think that most humans in general want to do the “right” thing, even though they may base their decisions on different foundations or standards.

Whether a person professes to be a Christian or not I think most people are concerned with trying to think the “right” way, to make the “right” decisions, to live the “right” life, and to be known in the “right” way.  Our intentions may be good, but are we really making our decisions on the truth?  It seems that everyone has their version of truth, but truth does not come in versions.

A couple of years ago  I began to really contemplate what Estate Planning is and what it means and what God instructs for us to do in regards to this concept. As I studied the topic I started to become glaringly aware of the difference between common traditional and accepted planning versus how God has directed us to approach the subject.

So what is an estate? One’s estate is everything that one has been entrusted with – typically resulting one to think of their real estate, checking, savings, vehicles, and personal property.  However, one’s estate is much more than that.  It includes even the very life that we have been given.  It includes the thoughts we think.  It includes our health.  It includes our energy.  It includes our time.  It includes the plans we make.  It includes the goals we have.  It includes the “careers” we pursue.  It includes the children we have been given.  It includes the relationships we have and develop.  Our estate is literally everything that we have that we have been entrusted with.

The other day, I was speaking with an attorney colleague.  During the course of the conversation, my colleague changed the focus of the conversation to share the challenges and frustrations of the firm and type of law that he practices.  He further shared his goal and solution to the problems he shared:  to work really hard for 20 more years so he can then do whatever he wants after that. I thought about that conversation for a long time afterwards and it eventually prompted me to write this post. I was so saddened by the mindset which my colleague possessed.  It truly made me morn for him;  not for him at the end of his life, but for him during his life.

When I think about my colleague’s statement reflecting his solution to remedy his current frustrations, I do not believe that this is God’s best for him.  I don’t believe that this is being a good steward of one’s life, career, time, energy, plans or goals.  How often do we or the people we know wander through life enduring torment only hoping that eventually we will get to the point when we can be free of it all?  If we truly consider our lives, careers, time, relationships, and all these other assets we have been entrusted with in Biblical Estate Planning light, then we are able to plan successfully, but also to achieve successfully. This is the goal of proper Estate Planning.

It is my goal through Based On Faith is to educate, teach, instruct, share, encourage, inspire, motivate and befriend you so that together we can live in a way that is pleasing to God. Through a Christian approach to Estate Planning we can create a plan to encompass our total estate and to make and live planning of that estate to have and share current blessings, as well as to ensure and joyfully anticipate future magnified blessings.BASED ON FAITH.
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