Good Morning,
This day began earlier than I am used to. My travel cup was filled with Door County Inn Keepers Blend Coffee and I am ready to write.
John 6:12 ESV And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples. "Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.
It's that time of year again. School is back in session already and more schools will answer the call to educate the young people next week. I see the annual drives to donate money toward back packs for the kids is in full swing.. I support this idea fully. I have been there to purchase back packs and also to distribute them. The school supplies are handed out in a new back pack.
It makes me wonder, what happened to the back pack Gertrude and Johnny were given last year? I can understand a missing back pack, a demolished back pack, or one that is just worn out. This applies to the football, baseball and soccer jerseys that don't get returned also
I ask myself, "can't a back pack make it two years?" Where is the incentive to take care of your back pack, if you know another one will be coming your way next year? Think about it this way. Wouldn't it be wiser if we taught the kids to care for what they have been given? "Come next year and bring your back pack with you. We will refill it with supplies and give you two dollars to spend." Then take the money saved and use it to support food pantries. Or use the money toward adding some air conditioning to the schools or purchase winter wear for those in need.
We all have budgets to live by, shouldn't we teach the children some accountability, some responsibility, and reward good performance? Now there will be cases when Mom or Dad traded the back packs for other things. Some of those cases and the "I lost it excuses" will be there. Some will be stolen. There a might be a good reason for the back pack to be missing.
But even just two dollars could be the incentive to be frugal, responsible, and accountable. If you teach 100 kids to be accountable and wise, it was 100 more than the year before.
I think we owe it to our kids to teach them to be accountable and good stewards of their belongings. Not meant at all to penalize, but to reward positive behavior. If it was good enough to be frugal, responsible, and accountable for Jesus, it is good enough for me.
God bless,
Marty
If you give a man a fish, you have fed him for one day. If you teach him to fish, you feed him forever.
So true in a disposable world. We are not teaching our future generations how to live responsibly.
ReplyDeleteI worked for a company that believed our products were throw aways but, there were numerous customers would send these products back for refurbishing rather than just scraping them.
ReplyDeleteI think this throwaway mindset is wasteful