Kids and Work

Kids and Work - Parenting Like HannahLast Sunday as I was almost finished getting ready for church, I was hit by the kind of pain that doubles you over. It quickly became apparent that a run to the emergency room was in my near future. I probably should have panicked.

This summer I am running our children’s Bible class program – Missionary Journeys. This usually means quite a bit of last minute set-up on Sunday mornings as well as co-ordinating volunteers and teaching one of the centers. None of that was going to be done by me that day.

We ran by the church building on the way to the hospital and basically kicked our fifteen year old daughter and all of the stuff needed for Bible class out of our car. As we drove off towards the hospital, she was left to do everything I normally did on Sunday mornings for set-up and co-ordination as well as the photography and filming that she normally does for me.

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Teaching Stewardship

Teaching Stewardship - Parenting Like Hannah
Photo by Tax Credits
When our daughter was about to turn four, she begin to notice you could buy things if you had money. We decided having an allowance was a great way to teach lessons on stewardship and giving. (There are a lot of different theories on allowances. Our personal take was that since we are a single income household, everyone shares the money “daddy” brings home.)

At the time banks were not popular, so I had to search high and low for three banks and a “church coin purse” that looked very different. On her birthday, we explained that since she was now a big girl she would begin receiving a weekly allowance. To make the math easier on everyone, we gave her four dimes a week. Each of the banks was labeled with how the money in that bank could be spent. She had one for church, one to buy presents for family, one to save for college and one she could spend as she pleased. One dime each week was to go in to each bank.

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