Your Kids – Your Money – Your Bible
You know that the Proverbs is life’s wisdom manual, especially for us as we are discipling the kids God has placed in our homes.
One of our key discipling tasks is to help them understand how money and their relationship with Jesus works. Proverbs is a treasure chest of helpful truths on this subject. A wise parent will take the time to read money-related proverbs with his/her children, and talk about how the proverb can shape their attitudes and actions.
“Honor the Lord with your wealth,” Proverbs 3:9, “and with the firstfruits of all you produce.” is just one of scores of wisdom nuggets available for lively discussion.
CODE OF SILENCE?
Ron Lieber (The Opposite of Spoiled: How to Raise Kids that are Grounded, Generous, and Smart about Money) offers some excellent help in chapter 2, “How to Start the Money Conversations.” But first, he notes, we need to deal with a major issue in the home when it comes to money – silence.
Parents most often don’t talk about money with their kids, for a variety of reasons (“it’s not age appropriate to do so,” or “it’s just more convenient not to talk about it,” or “I want to protect my kids from all this money stuff”). Our elders may have simply modeled the silence-strategy. Also, parents tend to talk to their boys more often than their girls. Finally (Lieber notes), parents often simply lie to their children when questions are asked (i.e., lies like “We don’t have any money,” or “We can’t afford it.”
Unthinkingly offering untruthful responses creates other problems. Positively, “The hidden message of offering the truth to children is that you and your children can work together to manage difficult issues. Children also learn that if they ever need a straight story, they can count on you” (Lieber).
READ SCRIPTURE, INVITE QUESTIONS – DISCIPLE WELL
Let me encourage you to download the USE YOUR BIBLE – TO MANAGE YOUR MONEY teaching from the www.ccames.org (http://6c7a6f3aa60e37525b41-6d95b3b1699ca17e7852b687cf2c4e1b.r27.cf2.rackcdn.com/uploaded/s/0e7016852_1519142110_sr021818.pdf) website. Review it with your family and look up the Scriptures together.
I also commend to you Ron Lieber’s book for some outstanding “how to’s” when it comes to applying the Scriptures you’ll read.
You can do this! God’s Word and God’s Spirit can help.