Teaching Financial Freedom

I love homeschooling when I focus on what God wants me to teach vs getting so focused on my original agenda I don't move with God's prompting.  As a home school mom I can put a great deal of focus on completing a book!  But I didn't originally set out to home school just to accomplish a book!  I set out homeschooling to TEACH my kids about life!.  That means we may change directions on a whim.  It may be finishing a book.  It may mean skipping a chapter or staying on 1 chapter for 3 months.  It is like I constantly have to evaluate why I am doing what I am doing.

I definitely feel the peer pressure to finish books.  I feel pressure if they don't do well on ACT or testing I have failed.  The problem with me living under pressure is I put pressure on them.  So it takes constant focus on God to evaluate whether I am living in flesh or living in His agenda.   

After a recent evaluation I decided to close all other books and we will focus on Foundations in Personal Finances by Dave Ramsey to finish out our school year.  It is clear our children are living in a time when finances are a BIG deal!  Just look at the debt we live in, the living in the moment self gratification, the lack of self control, impulse buying, no planning for tomorrow, or presuming on the future.  We train our kids to plan ahead for college but do we help them plan ahead for finances.  College is 4 years or so and finances are a lifetime! What better gift to give a future spouse than to be debt free?  What better gift to give God than to be financially free to move, go, and give as He leads? 

Realizing we have been teaching these principles but my kids are not fully grasping it we decided to make it a more focused attention so we purchased the home school version to teach our 5 oldest kids!  So 13 and above will get a good foundation of finances.  In our home you are required to pay for your cell phone, car insurance, gas, and camps.  We supply your basic needs but feel like you can't learn too early how to earn and pay your way through life.  The items I mentioned are privileges not rights for our children.  Our kids need to learn that not all things that come our way are a 'right' to have.  AS our college mentor, Larry McAtee, would say..."no worky, no eaty"!  WE take that down to teen level..."no worky, no campy"! 

I won't lie!  My husband and I wish we had unlimited funds and could send all our kids to camp, pay for phones and cover their insurance.  I find my self jealous of what others can give and have to learn to put it back into perspective.  It just wasn't in God's plan for us.  And frankly, maybe we didn't do all we needed to do to create that for them.  Regardless of the why, this is where we are, and we must move forward with what God is showing us.  For our family it means regardless of why we are in this position God is still God and we desire for our kids to live a life that allows them to move and work wherever God leads.  To 'owe NO man' is a good first step to being able to Go, Move, Work where God leads vs being trapped in a position or place that you must pay your debt before moving forward.  

So, all books have been shut and we will put our attention towards Foundations of Personal Finances!  As summer, camps, and jobs are on their plates they are willing to listen and apply.  Sometimes the timing of a subject can be everything so this mom is seizing the MOMENT to influence her children to a financially free future!