Your work matters

In a classic children's tale, a hen finds some wheat and decides to make bread with it. She asks for the help of a few other farmyard animals - a dog, a cat, and a duck - to plant, tend, harvest, and mill the grain, and finally to bake the bread. But each one declines her request, so she diligently does all the work herself.

When the bread comes out of the oven and the animals smell the aroma of freshly baked bread, they all hurry to ask for a share of the bounty. That's when the Little Red Hen tells them that, since she did all the work herself, she will eat the bread herself.

You see, the other animals had no appreciation for the hard work required to produce this food.

King Solomon lifted up a very similar lesson in Ecclesiastes 2:21, applying it to the passing down of wealth to those who do not share the same wisdom and diligence in work. He calls it meaningless and a great tragedy.

This can be a difficult principle to follow. It's natural to want to help future generations with opportunities you may not have had. But at the same time, we've all seen the destructive effects of someone without discipline being given wealth they did nothing to earn.

The lesson here is to be wise in how you pass down your financial legacy, and to help those to whom you wish to leave your legacy to appreciate the value of hard work. In this way, you can bless them not only with a financial legacy, but one of diligence and wisdom.