Question
Dear Gramps,
I hope you can answer my question. I had to declare bankruptcy cause I had no other choice. My bishop even suggested it to my husband and I. I fought it for as long as I could. We were planning to pay off our debt with the proceeds of the selling of our house but we just did not have enough. I believe we did all we could to avoid it. But now how does Father in Heaven feel about this? Is He mad? Disappointed? Will we be punished? Please help me put peace back in my heart with the truth of it.
Thank you gramps,
Marie
Answer
Marie,
This must have been a tough decision for you – to declare bankruptcy. I hope to share some insights with you.
First, did you do everything you could reasonably do to avoid it? Only you can answer that. You didn’t indicate how you got into the financial mess – whether it was overspending, medical bills, job loss, disability, family issues or what.
Second, sometimes ethics has to work both ways. I think it’s unfortunate that once a person becomes behind on their promises, that is when lenders make it even harder to make payments – typically with an increase of interest payments.
19 Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury:
The problems I have seen is that when credit is initially extended, it is done with reasonable offers and terms. Then, when things get out of control, is when the usury begins. The financial services industry practically encourages this behavior.
Is Heavenly Father mad? I don’t think so. Our Heavenly Father understands us more than we give him credit for. Think about it like this: is being excommunicated from the church ‘bad’? It could be… but it’s part of the repentance process. Excommunciation is like a Spiritual Bankruptcy. Sometimes it has to be declared in order to rebuild again.
Will you be punished? No. Not spiritually. You’ll be “punished” enough on this earth as you build new habits.
They say unto him, Cæsar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Gramps
