It’s No Fun Being Poor | Marvin J. Ashton | 1982

When money becomes our god, we are poor. One of life’s great lessons is to teach us that what we do with what we have is more important than what we have.

This speech was given on March 30, 1982.

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https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/marvin-j-ashton/fun-poor/

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"I think, when I announce the title of my remarks, it is reasonable to assume many of you could nudge the one next to you and say, “So what else is new?” or “I know that is true. Where does the line form for those to stand who want to bear witness to the fact?”

Well, with just that much to arouse your interest, my topic is, “It’s No Fun Being Poor.”

Despite some thoughts to the contrary, the great majority in attendance today are not poor. However, we can become victims of real poverty if we are not wise in our daily conduct. Fortunately, very few in attendance today are poor. The main question for every person to resolve is not what he would do if he had unlimited money, time, influence, or vast educational advantages, but how he will best use the means and assets he has and will yet have.

The purpose of my remarks is to try to help all of us avoid being poor. I hope that, if we are already poor, we will be wise enough to overcome it with corrective actions prompted by self-motivation. Brigham Young University does not exist to help you make money. It exists to make you rich.

“It’s no fun being poor.” Here are some truths for your consideration. I am going to identify them as ten commandments we should follow if we would avoid being poor. Doubtless there may be 10, 20, or 30 more, but for our purposes today, the following may be construed as perhaps a good start.

I. Thou shalt not lose a friend or cease being one.
A person is poor when his friendship inventory is depreciating. A person is poor when he is friendless. When friends, those closest to us, have cause to desert, to disbelieve, to lose confidence in us, we are poor. Very often friends are lost because we are unwilling to pay the price it takes to maintain them. It was Emerson who said, “The only way to have a friend is to be one” (“Friendship,” Essays). A friend is a person who will not only take the time to know us, but also take the time to be with us, and never leave us regardless of the circumstances. One of the finest presents each of us can give someone else is our best self. When we lose friends, our strength as well as our desire is ofttimes totally drained. In our personal balance sheets “minus friends” indicates a loss position. No man is useless while he has a friend. No man can declare personal bankruptcy if he has one friend.

Joseph Smith gave us a glimpse of his measure of friends when he said, “If my life is of no value to my friends, it is of none to myself” (HC 6:549). The Savior said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

When Robert Louis Stevenson was asked the secret of his radiant, useful life, he responded simply, “I had a friend.”

A friend in the true sense is not a person who passively nods approval of our conduct or encourages improper behavior. A friend is a person who cares. When we lose someone who cares about us, we lose one of our most valuable assets. An Arabian proverb helps us:

A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

A friend is a priceless possession because a true friend is one who is willing to take us the way we are but is able to leave us better than he found us. We are poor when we lose friends because generally they are willing to reprove, admonish, love, encourage, and guide for our best good. A friend lifts the heavy heart, says the encouraging word, and assists in supplying our daily needs. As friends we will make ourselves available without delay to those who need us.

It is hoped that in the days ahead more and more of us will free ourselves from expressions of, “If you need me, let me know,” or, “If I can be of help, call me,” and replace them with the development of a sixth sense that will let us know when and where our friendship is needed.

When Joseph Smith was in the Liberty Jail, he poured out his heart and soul with, “O God, where art thou?” (D&C 121:1).

Part of God’s great declaration of love and encouragement to him at that time was,

My son, . . ."

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