Teaching the Kids about Money

This morning, we decided not to go to church.  There was a church wide picnic at a clubhouse with a huge playground that is always so fun to go, however with Grant having stitches, we didn't think it would be a good idea for him to play.  Instead we listened to worship music at home and did a bible study (we do this every morning as well before Nathan starts work and the kids start school).

Nathan and I had been talking about how we need to teach the kids what the Bible says about earning, spending and saving money (Proverbs 22:6).  Since the end of the month is in a couple of days (and we are busy then), we decided we would go to Target and let them pick out the items that they wanted with the money they had earned for doing their jobs.  We told the kids that we are going to be starting something different when it came to the money they earned.  In 2008, we took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University (highly recommend to everyone!).  During the classes, it talked about teaching your kids what the Bible says about money.  Today, I immediately thought to check Dave Ramsey's website and sure enough there is a list of all of the scriptures concerning money and teaching your children.  You can view it here.  We began by reading Matthew 6:24 to the kids and explaining to them that it is important to love God and not money.  We went on to tell them that we are supposed to be good stewards of our money.  We used the verse Proverbs 6:6-8 that talks about how the ant works hard during the spring to store up for winter.  We explained that it is important to not spend all of the money we have and save money too (Proverbs 21:20).  We also explained that we give a tithe to the church (Proverbs 3:9).  I gave them an example, if they got $10 for doing their jobs, they will give $1.00 to church, save $1.00 and have $8.00 left to spend.  We told them that they needed to chose something to save up towards that was a larger item that they wanted to get.  We also told them that if they wanted to put some of their money to spend into savings they could do that also.  We went on to explain that they could also give extra money (an offering) to church, missions or someone in need if they would like out of their spending money.  We explained to them that it is important to be lead by the Spirit (Romans 8) in all things, so they should ask God to tell them if they should give just their tithe or extra.  We made sure everyone understood what we were doing and how much money they each had.  Then, we went to Target.

Cooper picked out a watch & a Spiderman box to keep his stuff in.

KIndle picked out Disney Princess silly bandz and a Tinkerbell watch. 

Grant picked out a motorcycle.

Celeste got a ball.

It was a good lesson for them to learn at an early age so that they will be good stewards of their money when they are adults.