A thought hit me this morning that prompted me to ask my children the following question individually:
If I gave you $10,000.00 what would you do with it?
My nine year old, my oldest daughter said (in Spanglish I might add), “I would tithe, give an offering and then buy stuff I wanted.” My eight year old, my oldest son said confidently, “I would give it to the poor.” And then he told me of the story of the rich young man that he learned about in Sunday school who was told to give all his money to the poor but didn’t. My six year old daughter said, “I would give it in the offering because I don’t care about money. God says to not care about money so I don’t care about money.”
In the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” the author describes the differences between the way a rich person and poor person think and act in reference to money. He says that if a poor person was given this amount of money he or she would use it to pay off debt and then spend the rest. The rich person would invest the money so as to make more money.
In the same chapter (Matthew 6) that Jesus teaches his followers how to pray we find thorough instructions about striving, worry, material gain and treasure. He says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (6:21) Does this indicate that the heart follows what it treasures most? Logic, reason and a close look at people’s behavior throughout time would affirm this truth. The gospels are not shy about revealing how people dealt with money. It is amazing to me how many of the parables Jesus gave us talk about money.
To recap: we have just briefly looked at what my kids have to say about ten thousand dollars, what a financial guru has to say about ten thousand dollars and a bit what Jesus has to say about significant sums of money.
If someone gave ten thousand undesignated dollars to me… after the tithe I am pretty sure I know what I would do.
If someone gave you $10,000.00, no strings attached; what would you do?
If I gave you $10,000.00 what would you do with it?
My nine year old, my oldest daughter said (in Spanglish I might add), “I would tithe, give an offering and then buy stuff I wanted.” My eight year old, my oldest son said confidently, “I would give it to the poor.” And then he told me of the story of the rich young man that he learned about in Sunday school who was told to give all his money to the poor but didn’t. My six year old daughter said, “I would give it in the offering because I don’t care about money. God says to not care about money so I don’t care about money.”
In the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” the author describes the differences between the way a rich person and poor person think and act in reference to money. He says that if a poor person was given this amount of money he or she would use it to pay off debt and then spend the rest. The rich person would invest the money so as to make more money.
In the same chapter (Matthew 6) that Jesus teaches his followers how to pray we find thorough instructions about striving, worry, material gain and treasure. He says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (6:21) Does this indicate that the heart follows what it treasures most? Logic, reason and a close look at people’s behavior throughout time would affirm this truth. The gospels are not shy about revealing how people dealt with money. It is amazing to me how many of the parables Jesus gave us talk about money.
To recap: we have just briefly looked at what my kids have to say about ten thousand dollars, what a financial guru has to say about ten thousand dollars and a bit what Jesus has to say about significant sums of money.
If someone gave ten thousand undesignated dollars to me… after the tithe I am pretty sure I know what I would do.
If someone gave you $10,000.00, no strings attached; what would you do?
5 comments:
so what would you do?
rich dad-ian teachings are great to listen to but, honestly, make me feel awful that i've made so many financial mistakes and that i still want to spend money.
i would tithe, give a lot to missions and probably put the rest towards buying a minivan - an investment in my family and in my sanity. (so do that make me a failure in comparision to these three standards?)
and by the way...great job teaching priorities to the kiddos!
hmmm. ya know, i think these kinds of things are hard in that the answer i give for what i WOULD do might be very different than what i'd actually do if it happened. know what i mean? i'd like to think my good intentions would carry over into real-life actions, but...
after the tithe, i think i'd give some away (either in cashola or gifts), do something for niel and i (trip or special purchase), and save/invest the rest.
Hmmm. Well, being that we are trying very hard to get out of debt so that we aren't shackled when we start a family ... I would have to say I would use it to pay off debt. If debt was already gone ... give, save, spend ... they're all in the mix. Depends on the moment. I guess I'm not much of a planner.
Oh, and I remarked on your introvert question on Alece's blog. Hope it helps. :)
Thanks Annie. :-) I am going to go over to Alece's blog to continue this conversation.
ha ha! You baited me?! That made me laugh out loud. :) Well, good job. I fell for it, and didn't even see through your ruse. ;)
Post a Comment