Modeling Financial Faithfulness

Modeling Financial Faithfulness

Thursday, 22 October 2009 09:16

From the desk of Garret G. Nieuwenhuis
Executive Director
Foundation for Eastern Christian School Association

Have you ever heard the saying, “We can teach what we believe, but we can only reproduce who we are”?

The most powerful tool we can use to teach our children is how we conduct our lives everyday. It is our responsibility to teach, talk and to model.

In his book “Prodigal Sons and Material Girls”, Nathan Dugan states “You are your child’s best hope for growing up resistant to the consumer culture. We, as parents, have great influence in shaping our kids’ values, priorities and habits. The sooner we realize that virtually every message our children hear about money promotes spending, the more prepared we will be to counter with a message on the value of saving and the joy of sharing.”

While we at Eastern Christian do not solicit our students to participate in our major fund raising initiatives, it is clearly our responsibility and our goal to help them understand financial principles which will help them manage their money but also to become good stewards and future members of Eastern Christian’s supporting community

How can we, as parents and grandparents meet this daunting challenge to model to our children an eternal perspective on life, money and possessions? One of the best ways for us to accomplish this is to show an attitude of thankfulness at all times. Getting our children involved in our giving activities and showing our children how they can save are very practical ways to “model” to our children and grandchildren. Letting our children know that giving isn’t always easy, and that giving sacrificially can be as satisfying as when we give out of our abundance is a life lesson that they will never forget.

The most important thing that we can do is to pass our faith in Christ to the next generation. As parents and grandparents we have a great responsibility to share the practical Biblical truths to our children. In many ways we are in a race against time. Unless our children learn and understand God’s financial principles of sharing, saving and spending, they will not be financially able, or have the motivation to support the Lord’s work in this world.

Our hope and prayer is that we as parents and grandparents will clearly model financial faithfulness to our future generations. May God bless us all in this formidable task!

(this message was adapted with permission from a Barnabas Foundation article “Modeling Financial Faithfulness”)