The other day my youngest child came to me and said, ” Mom, I NEED
money!” Her best friend’s birthday is right around the corner and she wants to do something extra special for her. Even though I’ve taught my
kids form when they were very young, that you don’t always need $$ money$$ to be a blessing to others, they still feel the pull from society; the voice that yells at all of us incessantly,day in and day out: Money = True success.
I can think back to a lesson I learned several years ago when money was tight and I felt as if I had no resources. Christmas was coming up and I wanted to do for others. I was sad until one day I heard
God say, ” Use what you have.” So I started looking around my home and I got busy; I hand made cards and I included my kids in the fun; these we sent out to friends and family. We made banana bread and took it to friends and neighbors. We even invited people over to our house for dinner and I began to see how the lack of money had been blinding me.
So I took my youngest daughter and I told her about one of my favorite birthday memories I’ve had as an adult. Way before I had any kids, I was working in Atlanta while putting myself through college. Lucy, my co-worker asked me a few weeks before my birthday to name a few things that I like. I named several things including home made pound cake. When my birthday rolled around, that morning when I arrived at the museum where we both worked I found a package on my desk. It had a little note attached to it. Lucy was right behind me and I turned around and gave her a big hug; then she told me to open it and once I did, I could smell the most delicious scent coming from the aluminum foil. Lucy had made a pound cake all for me! Let me tell you I felt so loved that day; I had received similar gifts like that in the past, but this one topped them all because someone thought enough of me to MAKE me my favorite cake. Hence I’ve never forgotten Lucy!
I could see my daughter’s gears turning and then she asked me at the end of my story,” What can I make for Tara?” We explored different possibilities and then she remembered Tara
LOVES pie. So off we went to find her a recipe for pumpkin pie.
We must teach our kids that money can be seductive
; the lack of it can lure you into a state of quiet, helpless desperation. When you DO have it, you think you’re invincible and the world is yours. I have prayed this many times in the past: “God please give me enough bread to satisfy my needs and those of my house; don’t leave me without, that I have to resort to stealing and don’t give me too much that I end up turning my back on you.” We must tell our kids that even though money IS important, it DOESN’T make the world go around!
I still tell my kids that when God blesses you, take care of your needs first and if you have extra well then, that abundance is not for you; it’s to be a blessing to others. When you teach your kids about how to handle money early in their childhood you’ll be amazed.My husband and I give our kids a small monetary allowance every 2 weeks when he gets paid. If they aren’t keeping up with their house chores and someone is sloughing off in their work,they forfeit their allowance to the person that picked up the slack. I taught them this one rule I learned from the book
RICH DAD, POOR DAD : Spend a little, give a little and save a little. In this way they will never be broke; the ones that live by this rule always have what they want, the ones who don’t go without.
1 Timothy 6:7-10
For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Ecclesiastes 5:10
Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.
Eva Santiago Copyright 2011
Eva Santiago 