by Pat Lamb (Author of: Let the Children Come; Children, Come to Me; When the Stars Fall Down; Widening the Church Doors to Teach the Narrow Way; My Thinking Book; Love is….) Books are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, www.patlambchristianauthor.com
Train up a child…
How Can We Prepare Children for Future America?
Anyone who keeps up with the news is aware of the fact that our country is having a great many problems. It is obvious that lifestyles will need to change in the future as our country faces debt at historical levels. The figures do not lie. There is no way that the debt can be paid off in the few years remaining until our children reach adulthood. Wise parents will do all they can now to prepare their children to cope with what they will have to face when they become adults.
What can parents do to prepare their children for the America of the future? There are three things that children need to learn that will greatly help no matter what the future holds. Children need to learn to distinguish necessities from things they only want and think would be nice to have. They need to learn to be self-sufficient, and they need to learn to be thrifty.
Ask almost any person to give up their cell phone and they will tell you, “Oh, no! I have to have my cell phone!” Actually, mankind has gone many centuries without a cell phone. Although they are nice to have, they are not a necessity. This is only one example of people not being able to distinguish needs from wants. This transfers to our children. For years we have gone in debt as a country, and in our households, thinking things were necessary when they were not. Romans 13:8 clearly says “Owe no man anything, but to love one another.” We have winked at that scripture in order to satisfy our wants for self pleasure and convenience.
If we don’t have the money to buy something, we should do without it. I can remember that my dad would not buy a new car until he could pay cash for it. He would take a load of cattle to market and combine his earnings with savings in order to buy a new vehicle. How times have changed! Children want to borrow ahead on their allowance and often we give in. Why? We give in because we do the same thing when we buy things we cannot afford. We have the mistaken idea that to let children have pleasure is to show love. This is far from the truth. Real love has to be tough in order to teach correctness of behavior.
Go to almost any home in America, poverty level included, and you will see broken toys or toys that children seldom touch. It is not uncommon to see toys left in the yard getting ruined. Undoubtedly, at one time, someone thought it was really necessary to get those toys for the children. Many toys break almost before a child has a chance to play with them. Money should not be wasted in this way. Also, money should not be wasted on junk food that does harm to children. We have many, many people in our country who have diabetes. Some soda has at least 10 teaspoons of sugar in one serving. The larger bottles have 2 ½ servings, meaning that approximately 25 teaspoons of sugar may be in a large bottle of soda. We are ruining the health of ourselves and our children, as well as wasting our money, when we allow them to have too much soda.
If we can teach our children the difference between wants and needs, to be thrifty, and to be self-sufficient, we will have gone a long way in preparing our children to live in future America.