Once, in a sermon on hoarding, I pointed out the foolishness of waiting until we die to give our children their inheritance. I explained, "When we die, our children will be in their 50s or 60s. They likely won't need our money then! And so, until their deaths, they hoard it from our grandchildren.

"The time to help our children is when they're young and need the money. Our children will actually benefit from it, and we can hear them thank us instead of wondering if they quietly hope we croak early! And since we can transfer as much as $10,000 per child annually without the recipients paying taxes on the gift, it's wiser to transfer resources when we're living."

Several weeks after the sermon I received a thank you letter from a young couple whose parents happened to be visiting that weekend. The wife explained that after hearing the sermon her parents sent her and her brother checks for $6,000. Nothing even close to that had ever happened before! The young woman wrote, "My brother and I call that the $6,000 sermon! Please preach more sermons on stewardship—especially when my parents are in town!"