CCS Newsletter: Fall 2005

Helping your children financially - Be Careful

We all want to help our children. When they are young, we want to provide for them in a way that often will be better than what we had. Do you remember wearing hand-me-downs? Often as parents we want better than that for our children.

However, we need to be careful as our children grow that we allow them to learn the Biblical principle of work. Early on, they need to see the relationship between their labour and having financial reward. Let's think of household chores. I think children should do chores because they are part of the family. They should not expect any financial gain. But maybe instead of handing out money for them as they ask for it, set up an allowance system that they can earn.

For example, maybe you could tell your child that every time he/she cuts the grass or shovels the snow, a set amount would be paid. You might come up with a number of these things to be done beyond household chores for which money is earned.

But the key is that the child knows that this money has a purpose:

• Part of it should be given to your church as part of the child's giving. This needs to be taught at a young age.
• Part of it should be put away for the future. We call this the Joseph principle out of Gen. 40-43. And finally,
• A certain percentage is available to spend.

The spending money should as well have a purpose. When the children are young, it might simply be to buy some candy or something special. As children get closer to the teen years when reasonable decisions can be made, it should be told that these earnings can help buy items that are important to them. For example, when your child is always asking for money for new shoes, maybe you agree that you will spend a certain amount over a given time for shoes. If they want to spend more than that, it comes out of their earnings.

What this does is illustrate the value of the labour. We all need to be reminded of that. Also it allows them to learn to make valuable decisions about how to effectively spend the money they have worked hard for.

Our ultimate goal needs to be to teach our children to be good stewards of all God has entrusted to them. One way we do this is by teaching them the value of work and the difficult and yet rewarding decisions on how best to allocate what God has entrusted to them!

Good Advice for Everyone ...

(Follow up to Spring 2005)

A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company:

• When you are writing cheques to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your cheque as it passes through all the cheque processing channels won't have access to it.
• Put your work phone # on your cheques instead of your home phone. If you have a P.O. Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a P.O. Box, use your work address. Never have your SIN# printed on your cheques. You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It never was between you and them anyway.