Today's Reading....

More from Proverbs:

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." Proverbs 22:6-7

We often hear these verses separately. Standing alone they are powerful and instructive and vital. But OH the power they have when combined!

When we define fiscal responsibility as a component of training our children, it takes on a whole new light. How many of us believe that a car payment for the rest of our lives is inevitable? How many of us save as much as we could instead of buying the next biggest, flashiest thing? How many of us live on less than we make?

How would the "mortgage crisis" be different if our parents had taught us that borrowing money is dangerous? Truth be told, most of our parents shied away from debt and most of our grandparents thought it abhorrent to borrow money from anyone. We, as a generation, have succumbed to marketing and the idea of having more.

This all goes back to our being spoiled, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. We live in a world that continually says we are entitled to this or that thing for whatever lame reason we can think up. We don't live in a society that mirrors the Bible in that a person who does not work, does not eat. There is always someone there to pick up our slack. Not out of an inability to work but out of a lack of desire. Welfare is not the answer to poverty. Employment is.

Not teaching our children fiscal responsibility is the root of why we have people living in the projects with 50-inch HDTV's and driving Cadillac Escalades. Not teaching our children fiscal responsibility is why Japan saves an average of 18% of their income while the US saves an average of -2%. Yeah, negative. That means we are farther in debt than what we earn. If all of our mindsets were fixed on the understanding that every time we borrow we have entered into servant hood, we have made ourselves slaves to VISA, we would probably turn tail and run from the extra 10% off our shopping trip with a credit card application.

If we taught our children proper money management we would have no need of government assistance. We would have made generation upon generation of givers, people who want to help others as they help themselves. We would also have created people who were ashamed that they weren't providing for themselves and their families, people that understood that when you have no money the best place to go is to work not to the welfare office.

We need to train givers, savers, and workers. People who know that you can have an amazing, full life that doesn't include a payment book.

I am going to continue to seek God's wisdom on how to train my children to manage HIS money the best we can. I hope you will do the same.

Love to all, goodnight!