Last week was a sad reflective week for me which gave me that jolt up again as I realised that it had been a while since I reminded those I was in contact with the importance of preparing for the unforeseen events in life. It is my role and calling in life to equip and prepare all those I come into contact with strategic keys to ensure a comfortable life not only now but in the future too. I have been consumed over the last couple of months with the big challenge of launching my Brand LifePlan and creating partnerships that enable it to be a more effective brand where I can truly fulfil my passion of serving my community in equipping them and providing financial solutions for their lives. As a team we help several people buy their homes, invest in property by getting them the finance for it, invest for their futures and retirement but one area that I hold very dear to my heart is about teaching the importance of protecting their lives against several events. I always think that this area has got to be taught about because you will rarely get anyone call you up and say “hello, I am looking to buy some life insurance cover please.” The few that do usually do so because they have been stung with the nasty shock by losing a close loved one or witnessing someone they are connected to somehow going through financial difficulties as a result of a life event.
I recommend several policies during a week and as life gets in the way, some of them are never taken up, some are cancelled and some are never actually getting to be discussed in greater detail beyond that initial conversation. The reasons vary from people thinking to themselves “it will not happen to me to them just getting too busy to finalising the last bits of the cover!” Last Friday morning I heard of 4 deaths of people I knew or was directly connected with, and an additional 2 who were fighting for their lives after a cancer diagnosis. On a couple of the incidents, I felt that overwhelming sense of responsibility of not having pursued the matter further beyond that initial conversation that we had in passing several months ago on getting cover for the family. For one lady that I knew, it was too late, she was now a widow with a young child she now had to fend for by herself. There was no luxury of grieving her husband without worrying about the bills flying through the door but she had to crack on with it and get back to work immediately. Friday also too took me back a few years ago to the training meetings we used to hold in my old team where we would discuss how to alert our clients to the probabilities of certain events happening in their lives and helping them to mitigate the risk with the monthly disposable income that they had. Little did we know as we sat in that small team of 6 that in just a few years ahead, one of us in that very group be dead whilst one of us would have had a live encounter with the dreaded BIG C we used to call it. It made me remember that none of us is immune to the unexpected struggles of life and how we are able to navigate our way out of them simply depends on how prepared we are for the battles, how strong our foundation is. Now there is a Faith Foundation, A support Network Foundation and a Financial Foundation that depending on how strong these three pillars are, will depend on how you and your loved ones manage to come out of it.
I am reminded of the parable of the two builders in Matthew 7vs 24 where Jesus teaches and says “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
I am a firm believer in Gods grace and I know that there is nothing impossible for him and that he is able to make a way where there seems to be no way. But I also know that he charges us to be wise and apply wisdom to our life matters so that we may not be caught unaware by the devourer who is waiting for someone to devour. It will not be enough when and if that day comes for you to say I had heard about these policies, or to think my sister has one of them in place but when the rain and wind and storms of life beat down on your house, It will only be those who have actually put the plans in place who will be able to stand without any additional worry or stress as to how to make ends meet. The journey and experience for them will be a totally different one. DO not delay any longer!
PUT THAT FOUNDATION IN PLACE!