The Root of Your Intention

In the Christian environment that I was raised in, I often heard the phrase "money is the root of all evil."

I heard it so frequently that I could practically predict its arrival in conversations, when it was being prepared in the mind to roll off the tongue as a philosophical addition to the complaints of the current state of the world. I was raised to believe that money was a product of hell, that it was created to be a mind-control tactic that could manipulate people into committing awful acts for the sake of it. While some of these views can ring true when looking at many situations on a global and individual scale, I’ve come to learn that this perspective helped to integrate what I refer to as the scarcity mindset within my family, and thus within me.

Financial struggle isn’t foreign to me. While I acknowledge that I am fortunate in many ways in comparison to other people’s situations, I know that things haven’t been easy for my single-mother to keep food on the table, keep the lights on, and the water running. I may have been young, but having been extremely sensitive to other’s emotions, I knew when things were tougher for her at certain times than in others, when we had to come up with recipes that would last as leftovers for the next two weeks. She did her best to keep bill notices out of sight and therefore out of mind, but finances would inevitably become something that would be brought to the forefront of my awareness as I got older.

My family would pray for abundance, pray for a way to be made out of no way, all the while simultaneously believing that money is the root of all the evil things that exist in the world. Not only my family, but others with this belief as well, would be praying for more of the very thing they condemned. To me, this has always created a weird energy around money that can be difficult to navigate. Money is evil, yet we need more of it in order to survive and live comfortably, but make sure you know that it’s evil while you obtain more of it.

If you relate to this upbringing, or have heard that phrase repeated to you throughout your life, I want you to know that you’re not alone in your struggle of how exactly you should view money. I also want you to know that there’s potential for this article to help shift your perspective, if you’re open and receptive to what’s going to be said as you continue reading.

Money is neutral.

Money isn’t inherently evil, nor is it inherently good. It is what it is. The value that’s placed onto money is a reflection of the beholder, not of the object within itself. If someone’s intentions for earning money are to be destructive, harmful, or to manipulate, then their monetary gains will obviously be a reflection of that. But it isn’t the money that’s causing them to behave in that way, it’s their own internal desires and intentions that do. It’s the same concept if someone’s intentions for earning more money are to be of service, to assist, and to provide, their actions as their finances expand will be a reflection of that.

Money is not evil, but people’s intentions for it can be.

Now to return back to what I mentioned earlier, the scarcity mindset I inherited through the environment and beliefs I was raised around. The scarcity mindset for me personally is the mindset of lack, the inner belief that I’m undeserving of financial abundance because of my own self-esteem issues but also because money is evil, dirty, of the world and not of the true soul. This scarcity mindset has caused me to not pursue opportunities that may have been fruitful, reject gifts, and reject my own ideas that could have been fruitful because I didn’t believe I truly deserved them.

This scarcity mindset can also manifest as the belief that in order to truly be a good person, you aren’t allowed to have a lot of money. Because all wealthy people are terrible, apparently.

If you’ve read this far into this piece, I would make the assumption that you’re someone who’s interested in personal development, in bettering yourself and thus bettering the lives of others through your existence. Because I believe you to be that kind of individual, I need you to know that the more you are able to receive, the more you are able to give. The more you are open to receiving gifts and opportunities, the more you are able to offer gifts and opportunities to others.

You do not have to live your life in scarcity as some sort of reflection of how pure or enlightened your soul is. You are allowed to experience monetary gain, you are allowed to accumulate more resources, you are worthy of seeing your bank account grow, you are worthy of gaining more clientele or work. All of this enables you to reach more people, to help more people, to offer more to people.

Money is neutral. Always has been and always will be.

How you view money, and how it manifests in your life, will always be a reflection of your beliefs and intentions with it. Don’t deny yourself potential abundance.

I promise that you deserve it. Unlearn the scarcity.