How to Teach Children to Become Good Stewards

Have you ever heard the story of The Elderly Contractor?

There once was an elderly master Carpenter who was ready to retire. He told his employer of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.

The Contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The Carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.

When the Carpenter finished his work and the Contractor came to inspect the house, the Contractor handed the front-door key to the Carpenter. “This is your house,” he said, “my gift to you.”

Christian parents – we NEED to desperately and urgently teach and model to our children that ALL money is God’s money, and that we are merely stewards of that which He gives and blesses us with. That money from God is missional, and serves a great purpose.

I have always believed that the most impactful bible verse of stewardship in my own life has been Genesis 1:28:

God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, having dominion over every living creature.

Within the first 30 verses of the holy bible, we are instructed on our purpose for being here and how we are to live – as stewards. And our children NEED to know this.

There is a great battle going on between us and the secular world. The devil is feeding off our desires to be US focused. Me, me, me. My world, my life, my dreams, my happiness, my feelings, my perspectives. We attempt to center everything around us and the world around us. When as Christians it is evident that WE fit into God’s greater plans – WE are stewards responsible for caring for HIS world.

And money is just one aspect, albeit VERY important aspect, of this idea.

Our money comes from God!

Our children need to know this. When they come to understand this their entire perspective and life’s purpose and mission is completely transformed. Often we think we work to get a paycheck to pay the bills. Money offers such a larger vision than this.

When I work, God blesses me with the gift of money which He uses not only to enlarge my own life, but to bring blessings to others and to further His kingdom. Wow! What a vision for our children’s lives!

Our children have much to learn to manage and be stewards over in their lifetime, beginning with some such as these: their personal hygiene, homework, reading, keeping their rooms clean, their health both fitness and eating, friendships, family relationships, their relationship with Jesus, their minds and the things they are looking at, their speech, their time.

And…their money.

Matthew 25 shares the story, The Parable of the Talents. In it the faithful servant here’s from the master:

Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.

I think this verse needs to be the structure for how we raise our children for being stewards of the money put into their trust over their lifetime. And what an honor, God has chosen us, you, me, to teach them this.

Can you imagine, your child, your children, stepping up to the gates of heaven one day, and the creator says to your child, Well done, good and faithful servant.

Practical tip in action:

#1 – Intentional commission for chores they do around the house. Stop calling it allowance. Allowance isn’t earned, yet commissions are once work has been completed. Find something, anything, hopefully meaningful and necessary within your four walls of your home to have your child be responsible for to earn an ongoing commission. Once and immediately after the work is completed, distribute to them the money they earned.

Now is the important part. Have them separate their money into the only 3 categories money can be placed into – Give, Save, and Spend. There are many perspectives on these distributions however my perspective is led with:

1. Giving comes first and is 10%
2. Saving 15% – leaning on the more aggressive form of saving, which seems to be becoming more and more popular in these modern days

Which leaves…75% for spending.

Next, as you distribute and put money away, before you put the Give portion away, teach your child to pray over this money. I won’t get too deep into the story of Cain and Abel, in which Abel brought the BEST of his first fruits and God was displeased with Cain’s offering. But, we want to be sure as parents we teach our children to always pursue God’s heart on how much we are giving. I am not so legalistic to believe that we may have times that we don’t give quite as much. I don’t believe that not giving prevents us from entering heaven. But we want our children to learn to trust and seek God and the desires of His heart on what we give. We want to know, confidently that He is smiling down on our offerings and tithing. So, before they put it away, Pray over it with them.

#2 – Steward of money – Give your child some money at the beginning of the month. $20, $30, $100. You choose. Tell your child (age appropriate obviously) that when the month is over, whatever is left, you will DOUBLE that amount. If you give them $20 and they have $20 at the end of the month, hand them another $20. If they spent $5 and only have $15 left, that’s okay, but give them $15. The point is not to punish them for spending, as spending money is not a sinful act, yet to encourage them to be responsible with money. Perhaps that $5 they spent was irresponsible, perhaps a candy or toy they REALLY wished they hadn’t bought. And we don’t aim to teach guilt and shame, yet to learn to evaluate the things we spend money on which God has given to us.

(One suggested variation – rather than telling them you will double what is left, tell them that whatever they have left at the end of the month, you have a special reward for them, and then continue to match what they have left. The suspense of not knowing! The intrigue! I believe that regardless of this approach they will still get the sense that, whatever you matched, they could have potentially received more if they had kept more.)

30 days of stewardship

I leave you with one last suggestion on teaching your child the honor and blessing and responsibility of stewardship.

Give your child/youth a plant, a young plant, to be responsible for, for 30 days. To water it, make sure it gets enough sunlight, to protect it from our pets. 30 days later, check back in and see how the plant is fairing. Praise them for any efforts they made. Discuss ways they could improve on their stewardship during that time.

I pray that this helps you to parent better and for your child to learn to become responsible, kingdom-focused members of the kingdom!

I wanted to share a video that I thought was another powerful teaching on our stewardship: What is Stewardship – https://youtu.be/IexjUqXYcts

If you enjoyed this, check out my next blog, How to Teach Kids to Give?

Tackle two birds with one stone, read your children this bedtime story on money and let them learn how the borrower is slave to the lender in, Episode 1: The Toy and the Slave.

Featured Image: Photo by Nikola Jovanovic on Unsplash

Bible Reference: Matthew 25:14-30 ESV (see link above)

Bible Reference: Genesis 1:28 ESV (see link above)