Over this past year I have been trying to create a new ministry/business, where I am able to reach out and help others with the knowledge I have learned about health and nutrition. I am a people person. I enjoy being able to help people in any and all areas of life. I have always felt life is not about what I can get, but what I can give, and once the Lord called me out, it became obvious that I wasn't too far off in my thoughts. In the past twenty years or so, I have learned much about life. Health and nutrition have been at the forefront of my learning, of which, I thoroughly enjoy. So toward the end of last year, I launched something I called, 'Abundant Life Coaching' (www.beyondthemoment.org). It is a ministry created to provide help to people in all areas of life. From health to weight problems, from exercising to overcoming depression, the Lord has blessed me over the years with knowledge and information, if learned by others, they would be freed from the strongholds that have them bound. Now I don't claim to know everything, but what I do know, is what I know, can help people get on the right path to victory.
Since starting this ministry, I have struggled with the idea of what to charge for this kind of help. Some say it should be for free and to be honest with you, I sincerely struggle with making or even asking people to pay for these services. Most of the time, I look to the Lord for my help and believe He will touch others to give because they 'see' the value of the information I am able to give them. To help an individual come out of sickness, whether it be a mental stronghold or a dis-ease of body, one would think, would be of high monetary value. But I have learned and continue to learn that this seems to be a two edged sword. It seems, for the most part, if it doesn't cost a person something, then they are less apt to respond to the information given to them. Let me explain. I have found on a continual basis, if I don't charge the client anything, if I don't extract some kind of a cost from them, most of what I say goes unheeded. I can give them hours of my time, exercise plans, books and notes to better health, and if it doesn't cost them anything, within days, they are back to their same old habits and brought back into the captivity of the same old strongholds again.
Adam Smith said, "The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it." It is becoming quite clear to me, if it doesn't cost you anything, then you will not value it. To me, the information I give is very valuable. The Lord has blessed me with many great and wonderful experiences of life! After working and putting myself through college, I graduated from Michigan State University with a B.A. in Social Science and a secondary teaching degree. I have sat under an anointed preacher for over twenty years learning far more than a psychology class professor could ever offer me in secular knowledge. I was principal and high school teacher of our Christian school for twenty-one years. I have been married for almost nineteen years and been blessed with two wonderful children. It has cost me years of laboring to gain information and insight concerning health and the body. I have spent a lot of money on books, programs, and supplements. I have trained for eight marathons and learned about the benefits of exercise. Its not that people who know me don't respect me, because they do appreciate the information I have gained, but the principle still stands true, if it doesn't cost them anything to gain what I give them, most people will not do anything with the information I give them. The ole cliche holds true...'No pain...no gain!' If there is no pain in the wallet, then there is no value attached to the information. If the information doesn't cost anything, then there seems to be very little motivation to follow through with any of the information provided.
On the contrary, I have witnessed the opposite to hold true. If the client pays a certain amount of money, the value of the information goes up because it is costing them something and if they are spending their money, then they will get the most out of the value they have now attached to the information. No wonder a psychiatrist charges so much per hour and no wonder people give the psychiatrist so much credit for their 'healing'. Could the relationship of the psychiatrist/patient be based on the value or the cost of the counseling session? I have no doubt some of this plays into the dynamics of such a relationship.
I don't think any of you who are reading this article today would argue the fact that the things that are freely given to you, as Thomas Paine said, you esteem of lower value than the things you toiled to gain through hard work and/or purchased with your hard earned money. When I was a youth, my first car was given to me by my parents. Yes, I appreciated it, but there was nothing like the value I placed on the first vehicle I bought for myself. I can remember feeling quite upset the first time I saw a scratch in MY car in a parking lot! Why? Because I was making the payments! It was costing me money to keep that car on the road, and its value was intrinsically connected to any cost I had to pay for that vehicle!
I would perhaps venture into the arena and say this is not just an individual problem in America, but it is an American problem. Our freedoms have not cost us anything. Prosperity, like Israel in the Old Testament, has blinded us from the true cost of our freedoms. Many times Israel stood in a similar place of decision. "And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word." (1 Kings 18:21) "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." (Isaiah 1:18-20) George Mason said, "As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this." Now we, as a nation, stand at the crossroads of life and death, or as Patrick Henry, in terms of value, said, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" What value is there to life if we are to live as slaves? What value is there to the lives of our children if they are straddled with the economic debt of this generation? Only now, after years of laziness, slothfulness, and ignorance are the American people beginning to wake up!
There is no doubt what you risk truly reveals what you value. The Founding Fathers, when they signed the Declaration of Independence they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Most of those who signed suffered dire consequences, but they esteemed their God given liberties higher than life itself! Thomas Jefferson said, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Our slack has cost us our liberties and now we must make up our minds... As the individual deals with the sickness in their own body, and must put a worth or a value on the information I give them. So must our nation put a value on her God given liberties...are they worth it?
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