Musing on Gratitude and True Faith. . .

I had lunch with my good friend Kristi from Rolling Hills today at Manzana's (to celebrate her 21st - ha ha - birthday) - we spoke of gratitude and how you can build thankfulness into our kids' lives - too many of our children have this attitude of I deserve it all and why can I not have that new I-Pod and well they have it all.How do we teach kids to live selfless lives that are not about them all the time? How do we teach values?

One thought is that parents need to live values that they talk about. Delayed gratification when it comes to things we want/need. Do we buy things as parents whenever we want. . .

As for kids, they get new cars and do not pay for gas or insurance at age 16. She mentioned how some kids then say their parents are stingy and I think - Oh, my. Here, parents are trying to teach their kids values and not giving them everything and they miss the point. My parents did not give me everything and taught me the value of work by making me work. I wanted to live on campus when I was working on my undergrad degree at The University of Portland - but my parents lived 7 miles away and said no - and I did not have the money. So, I worked the next summer and saved up enough to live on the dorms. Did I learn the value of work!


We also talked about building true faith into our children's lives and mused on the fact that so much in today's church / youth ministry is watered down. She mentioned a guy named Paul Washer who is very strong in his belief about the church and how watered down the sermons have become. To tickle ears. . . I need to check it out and evaluate and discern. . . Are we as a church just trying to be liked and loved and are we just trying to sell books and get people inside our church building.

Food for thought. . . always asking questions and wondering...