Running Short

A truly liberal person will pay attention to whom and what he spends his money on. He values his wealth as a means to support his household and help those who really need it. A prodigal doesn’t care about who receives from him as long as he is liked. Being liked is more important to him than the fact that he is giving to crooks or enabling bad habits. Wealth becomes a liability when it is being used for appearances or some kind of superiority. This can be sought either by striving to have better things than others or by buying their favor. A liberal person doesn’t accumulate  wealth as a symbol but for security for his family and to benefit other people’s lives. That is why he is careful to give to the right person at the right time and for the right reasons. If his contribution is enabling bad behavior, it will be cut off since the waste pains him and there are others that can use the help.

So a prodigal errs in being pleased for the wrong reasons, especially in his spending. A miserly person falls short in giving yet he exceeds in taking. There are different motives in giving and taking that define particular habits of character in these areas. As we study them we will gain understanding on what to avoid ourselves since no one is exempt from dealing with them.

A prodigal doesn’t usually err in taking too much and so most of the time he ends up broke. A person who exhausts his substance with giving is the defining characteristic of a prodigal. He really has no better character than a miserly person and can be cured by either age or poverty. A prodigal already has the characteristic of giving similar to a liberal person. If he learns to earn properly, and to give to the right people, he will come out of it. That is why we don’t look down on this behavior as much. This person isn’t so much wicked as he is foolish. So he is looked at as someone better than a miser because at least his wasteful behavior benefits others. The miser can’t even benefit himself.

Most prodigal people receive recklessly from any source without honor. They do so to keep up their spending habits since their own means always runs short. This is not liberality because they could care less about doing what is right and noble. The people they make rich are those who should be poor and those who are respectable are despised. Flatterers especially benefit as do those who give them pleasure. They surround themselves with self-indulgent people since nobility means nothing and the focus is on pleasures.

As we said earlier ; a prodigal can be educated and come to his senses. But a miser is very difficult to change. Even with old age he may become worse. This seems to be a more common trait in people and it shows up in many ways. It is interesting that there are so many ways a person becomes possessive and so many motives behind it; Next time we will take a look.