Endowments

In the financial world, an endowment is a financial structure for managing and indefinitely perpetuating a pool of investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders or donors. For example, a college or university may have an endowment set in place to ensure that the library or the music program or the school of engineering has necessary funds and budget to carry out its functions and purposes. The endowment is set up in a way that part of the money and investments and capital is dedicated to the preservation and maintenance of the endowment itself as a financial structure and part of it is dedicated to carrying out the vision and will of those who created the endowment in the first place. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have the opportunity to receive an endowment from the Lord. Like worldly endowments, this Heavenly endowment is bestowed for the managing and indefinitely perpetuating a pool of resources for a specific purpose according to the will of our Heavenly Father. The Lord gives us this endowment for a specific purpose - to proclaim the gospel, perfect the saints, redeem the dead, and to bring about the immortality and eternal life of all of God's children. The beauty of an endowment is that it can be self-sustaining. As long as we are exercising righteous stewardship over our endowment, then the Spirit will guide us in the ways to create a constantly renewing source of power and strength and light. We will no longer need to scramble for every drop of oil to add to our lamp. We will no longer need to fight for every drop of Living Waters to nourish our seeds of faith. As we honor our covenants and administer our endowment according to the will of its Founder and Donor, our endowment will continue to provide strength and hope and comfort and clarity to aid us in all of our righteous endeavors. In the Parable of the talents, the Lord gave to each of his servants an endowment of funds. The servants who managed to double their talents did so because they administered their endowments according to the will and the guidelines set forth by their master. I know that many of us have barely scratched the surface of our endowment's potential, but the more we trust our Heavenly Father by following His will, the more and more we will get out of our endowment.