My daughter asked why I'm not rich like other pastors. I laughed, then I cried.

Yesterday my 9 year old daughter came to me and said, 'Daddy, why are we not rich like other pastors?' I just stood there. She was asking because one of her friends in school attends a church where the pastor flies private. She said the pastor's daughter has everything.

I laughed small and told her that some pastors are called to build buildings, but I am called to build people. She looked at me like I was speaking another language. Then she hugged me and said okay. But the question stayed with me the whole night.

In my counseling experience, I have seen so many young people who think success is tied to what you own. Our people say, a man's wealth is not in his pocket but in his name. I have seen things that money cannot fix. I have sat with families where the father has everything but the children cannot talk to him. I have seen pastors with private jets whose marriages are empty. God is not a vending machine, and ministry is not a business.

I am not saying poverty is holiness. No. But the thing about life is that we have to know what we are building. If I build a cathedral and lose my daughter's trust, I have built nothing. If I build a boy's future and he becomes a man who helps others, that is a building that will never collapse.

So last night I told my daughter again, this time with my eyes wet. I said, 'I am not rich the way the world counts it, but I have a peace that money cannot buy.' She did not fully understand. But one day she will. I hope by then I will still be here to see it.