[Gary Petty] Of all the achievements in the Guinness Book of World Records, one is really the most tragic. It’s Hetty Green. Hetty Green was the first woman millionaire in the United States. She was also so miserly and so mean to everybody, she became known as “the witch of Wall Street”. She would wear the same black dress and the same underclothes until they wore out and then she would buy another black dress and underclothes. She never lived in any kind of luxurious lifestyle. In fact, her own son ended up with serious health problems because she refused to pay for an operation that he needed. And so, here she was – she forced herself to live in poverty all of her life, was mean, not liked by anybody, and in the end she died with nothing. And so she is known as the World’s Greatest Miser in the Guinness Book of World Records.

You know, life – things are part of life. But things are to be used by us as part of life. They’re given to us by God to be used. I think of the proverbs. In the book of Proverbs it says, “The people will curse him who withholds grain, but blessing will be on him who sells it” (Proverbs 11:26) Another proverb says, “There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing, and one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches” (Proverbs 13:7). You know, it’s an old adage, but it’s true, that we should save for today like we’re going to live a hundred years, but live today as if it’s our last day.

That’s BT Daily. Thanks for watching.