Thrive has been an opportunity to start at dialogue about living with margin and living on mission…and to take some action. This is a dialogue you can have at home to. I love what Jeff Brodie sent out to parents of high school students at Connexus last week and want to share it with you:
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The number one thing I hear from adults at Connexus is that no one ever taught them about managing finances when they were growing up. Some of you have been asking me if we’ll be doing something around Thrive in Xtreme and InsideOut. We wanted you to know that in our student environments we will be talking about God’s perspective on our resources (finances and possessions) over the course of the year (after the MyLife weekend). Specifically we’ll be focusing on what it means to give first, save second, and live on the rest–Living with margin so we can live on mission.
Like my family, I recognize that many of you are working to create margin in your finances as we take the opportunity to respond to the Thrive one time offering and Thrive increase to help release the full potential of what God could do through Connexus. As you process this, we thought we’d share a few ideas of what you could start doing with your kids now that would help them grow in their understanding of how to thrive financially as they prepare for adulthood. Here's a few to ideas to start:
- Give your son or daughter an allowance and 3 jars (one labeled give, one labeled save, and one labeled live) to help them apply the give, save, live principle tangibly. This is a great one for grade 6-8 students.
- Talk to your kids about how a credit card works and what the pitfalls are. Between age 16 and 18 students are often offered their first credit card. Their first week of college/university they are bombarded with offers and gifts from credit card companies. Most sign up.
- Mutual funds, income tax, credit cards, budgets, RRSPs are all concepts that students can understand (especially high school students). As a former high school business teacher I learned that often students hear these concepts at the dinner table, but rarely do adults ever explain them. Look for opportunities to explain the basics of finance to your kids.
- The greatest pitfall for most families is not doing a family budget. Look for ways to have your child participate in the process of creating a budget. Maybe headed into your next family vacation let your kids participate in creating the vacation budget?
- Are you signing yourself up for one of our Financial Learning Environments this year? Maybe it would be helpful to have your high school age son or daughter tag along or go through some of the material with you afterwards? It’s very accessible curriculum.
These are just a few ideas of what you can do to help prepare your child to make wise, scriptural choices that set them up to be adults who see money as an opportunity not an obstacle
More to come in the future on Thrive in our student ministry. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions along the way.
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– Thanks so much Jeff. Excited about seeing a generation of students live with margin and live on mission! And if you have teens and pre-teens in student ministries, I think you'll agree with me, they are in superb hands. Jeff and his team of leaders and incredible. – Carey
