making change

​Financial habits are learned early and I learned at a young age that I liked the power to buy things.

As a kid I didn't have much money, maybe a few dollars here or there for a good report card, but nothing to write home about until I was about 10 years old and got a weekly allowance of $10 for my chores (which included mowing the yard, cleaning my room and various other household duties as assigned).  I thought that $10 was a HUGE amount of money and was already dreaming about all the things I would buy with my fortune.  My parents, though, had other plans.

They instituted a rule of how I could use my money.  I had to save some, give some and then I could spend some.  I didn't like this rule but I had no choice so each week, I stashed some away in my piggy bank (later this turned into a real bank account), I took some to church and put it in the offering plate and the rest I spent...mostly on soda and candy as any 10 year old boy would do.

My parents were smart enough to realize that the financial habits I formed at a young age would be with me for the rest of my life and it's true, all these years later I still save some, give some and then live on the rest.

As we, as a church, look at God's advice on finances, let's not forget to help our kids learn wisdom when it comes to money from an early age.
 
Proverbs 22:6 says "Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it."


In Christ,
Pastor Scott McDermid