Do You Desire To Bring Your Child Into The Kingdom?

It's hard enough to be a Christian parent in this world. How do we combat the forces of evil while at the same time raise our children to desire to walk in God's light? By seeking His face, His Word and inspiration from each other as we stumble through this parenting process together. You will find all the instruction, encouragement and resources you need right here at The Greatest Mission Trip You'll Ever Take to help you be the most effective witness to your child that God would have you be. Look around and come back often. Let's learn together.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Character Training At 55 Cents A Pound

photo by howcanirecyclethis

My youngest son wants to earn money so he can buy games for his myriad gaming systems. He really has his eye on buying a Wii. He theorizes that everyone else has one except him, and he may not be far from the truth on that. We tend to be a little slow with keeping up to date with things, rationalizing that we can make do with what we have. My father recently asked me if we have a CD player because he had a recording he wanted to send me. We’re not that far behind, but that gives you a clue as to how well we keep pace with the 21st century.

So we scoured a couple of parks, the Wal-Mart parking lot and a few streets here and there for aluminum cans. My son can get fifty-five cents per pound for them at our recycling center. I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to do something together, a kind of mother-son outing of sorts.

Here's what we learned:

  • There’s a whole lot more plastic lying around out there than aluminum;
  • Mosquitoes are just as active in the morning as they are in the evening;
  • Parking lots in the park and bleachers around ball fields have more cans than anywhere else;
  • We probably spent more in gas driving around than what he’ll earn in aluminum;
  • Your car will pick up a distinctive beer odor in proportion to what you recover from your exploring.
Nonetheless, it’s was an encouraging start for him. He found out he’ll probably need about thirty cans to equal a pound. We’ll hit folks up at church tomorrow for their stash. If he can find just one person with an addiction to carbonation, he’ll have a veritable goldmine in aluminum.

I applaud his effort. If I can help him establish a good work ethic and responsible stewardship of his money, those are good character traits for him to have. He already does a good job with tithing out of his allowance. I’ll help all I can to shape godly character in him.

Except, he’s okay with people throwing garbage into our yard now. Actually, only if it’s aluminum cans. I’m not sure I can go for a selective littering policy for the sake of character development.

Related Articles:
Instruction In Righteousness - Resource For Character Training
Tools Of The Christian Family
Never Forget Why We're Parents

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