Time to Talk Money

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need

Luke 15:14 (New International Version)

As I stood in the cell phone store waiting to ask a question I watched many youngsters, too young to have full time jobs, gasp in admiration over phones that would cost more than two hundred dollars. A young mother next to me wondered aloud how many bells and whistles she needed to have on the phone she was purchasing for her twelve-year-old. She wondered about how this new acquisition would affect her phone bill. But she was convinced that her child needed a cell phone. Perhaps she did, but I was thinking about the extraordinary cost of providing each family member with his own phone.

One teen gushed, “This is the one I want!” holding a shiny beauty with a huge price tag. The only question seemed to be whether or not her father would buy it. She did not question the wisdom of such a purchase. How difficult it is for parents to convey God’s view of money and possessions to today’s youth. Media gives them such easy, vivid access to the lifestyles of the rich and vapid that those values begin to feel like the norm. Our children, lacking the broader view age and experience provide, believe they are limited only by what they want, not by the family’s finances and goals.

Perhaps during this current economic crisis we can teach some neglected values about money. Many, for the first time, can sit down with the family and discuss not only what they can afford to buy, but what the financial goals of the family are. When circumstances are uncertain children can be taught the wisdom of long and short term saving based on plans and priorities. They can be taught the proper use of credit and the importance of avoiding debt. Children can be helped to understand that parents are not the “bad guy” when they decide not make a purchase.

Our children receive things so easily that they do not understand the value of their belonging or feel the sting of shouldering the cost. Even youngsters who earn their own money need to be taught its value. When my granddaughter lost her second camera her father told her it would not be replaced. As she began to save for a new one she had the face the fact that it would take all of the money she earned from two part time jobs for several months to replace the camera. She still had to pay her tithes and meet her other financial obligations. She shopped very carefully for the new camera and refused to buy it until it went on sale. Children need these glimpses of reality. If they do not understand the struggle it is difficult to teach them responsibility and gratitude.