Financial Literacy

Day 1, Generational Poverty

The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down. Proverbs 21:20 (NIV)

When I turned eighteen, my grandpa sat down with me and discussed finances. He was born in 1929, the year of the Great Depression. He went to work at twelve years old; milking cows, working tobacco, and pumping gas. Before school and after school he worked to help support his household. He joined the military right after high school and got out of the circumstances he was raised in. Through the military, he was able to achieve a doctorate degree and eventually retired in his hometown where he opened a chiropractic office. My grandpa had a lifetime of knowledge he wanted to share with me, so paid close attention.

              He shared how credit scores worked and things that would help or hinder my score. I also learned which credit cards offered cash back and how to use them wisely without racking up unnecessary debt. He went over all the different types of savings accounts and investment opportunities. The importance of a college education of some kind and how I needed to be able to make a living on my own if I never got married. He warned me of financing too many things and the dangers of high interest rates connected with loans. My dad followed the talk up with the importance of including God in all my decisions and setting aside my monthly tithe before paying out any other bills. After this lesson, I felt like the smartest eighteen-year-old around.

              Sadly, kids from generational poverty don’t get this type of advice. They aren’t encouraged to get a college education and often disqualify themselves and their family members with negative words and visionless expectations. These kids don’t know what it means to save, they have no concept of budgeting, and many never open a checking account. Their vision is nearsighted and are regularly being taught to live hand to mouth instead of looking at the long term.

              The reality of this existence arose through conversation one night in one of my teacher training classes. I was leading my students in a conversation about their experience with students in the classrooms where they were fulfilling their practicum hours. One of the young ladies spoke. “We had career day this week and my third-grade students were visited by a variety of people who shared about their careers. Firemen. Bankers. Policemen. Politicians. Nurses. Security guards. Corrections workers. Housebuilders.

“After the day was over, one little girl raised her hand and asked, ‘Why isn’t my career up there?’

“I asked her about her career. She said, ‘My mama said all I’d ever be good for was having babies and living on the government. I want a career as a mama.’”

Everyone in the room grew still. Not a homemaker. Not a stay-at-home wife. A welfare mama. My student, along with everyone in the college classroom, shared how sad that was. This nine-year-old child who had the whole world ahead of her had been reduced by her parent to only have a choice of becoming a welfare dependent mama.

              We live in a sad generation of people. Not only is it sad educationally speaking, but also from a spiritual perspective. Homes like this little girl’s don’t have Jesus. They aren’t being taught the truths of God or about the hope he offers. And they aren’t being taught the right ways of scripture regarding marriage, families, and children.

Do the Heart Work

1.      How can you help students who are being raised to live hand to mouth?

2.      What lessons can you involve in your classrooms to teach children the value of saving, planning, budgeting, and retirement?

3.      How can your prayers change for your students based on the lesson today?

Digging Deeper

Read Psalm 14:28-35.

               “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?  If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Those in generational poverty aren’t taught the value of planning ahead. But so many of us aren’t taught the importance of counting the cost for Christ either. We were drawn to him because of his love, compassion, and grace but miss the part about sacrifice, surrender, and denial. Some might say we are living in spiritual poverty—claiming God, but not understanding our future with him.

If You Get Spare Time

              How were you raised? Did you come grom generational poverty? If so, what was it like breaking the chains that held so many in your family and neighborhood stuck? If you were not raised in generational poverty, what were you taught by your family related to finances? What are you teaching your personal children? How does God fit into the bigger picture of finances?