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Budget Lessons from a Seven-year-old

By Jeanne Bernick, St. Paul member

My oldest daughter, Emma, has an elaborate banking system in her bedroom. Her system is comprised of three separate banks made from plastic Crystal Light lemonade containers. Each container is decorated with pretty paper and stickers and on top is a wide slit through which she can deposit coins and bills. These three homemade banks each have their own label and purpose: Fun, Savings and Charity.

Whenever my daughter receives money for doing chores, or for babysitting her little sisters, or for her birthday, she divides up the cash and makes deposits into her banks. She understands that a certain percentage should go into Charity, as instructed in the Bible. I’m always surprised by how heavy her Charity container feels.

Recently, Emma’s great-aunt Carole sent her a 7th birthday card with two crisp $5 bills tucked inside. I assumed at least one of these bills ended up in her Fun bank. The next Sunday, as I scurried to push our family of five into the van to head to church, Emma ran back into the house to “get something.” Later during the service offertory she produced the two $5 bills (plus some change) from her bag and readied them to be placed in the offering plate. I was surprised. “Emma, you don’t have to put all of your birthday money into the offering, maybe just some of it,” I said.

“No, Mom, I want to give it all,” Emma replied. “It feels good to give it away. I have enough stuff anyway.”

It was a simple truth out of the mouth of a child. Her words made me sit back in the pew and think: Is it time to adjust my own Fun, Charity, and Savings budgets?

As a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church, I have pledged to help pay for the new sanctuary where I love to worship. I have made a commitment to see that the sizable mortgage be paid down as quickly as possible. I know that I honor God by honoring my commitment to our latest capital campaign. And later this month, I will pledge for the church’s Daily Ministry.

But this commitment isn’t easy. Emma may be able to freely give her whole $10, but it takes more faith for me to hand over my family’s hard-earned money. After all, I have a few extra containers to deposit into at home, including ones for groceries, taxes, and mortgage. Still, my husband Scott and I believe the Bible instructs us to tithe a percentage of our income. In these tough economic times, that means making budget adjustments. I will likely have to reduce funds in the “Fun” category of the family budget in order to continue making commitments to the “Charity” category.

That doesn’t mean I plan to change the amount of the fun in my family’s life. I’ll just think differently about the way I go about having fun. For example, a trip to the Pumpkin Patch can be just as wonderful without the five sodas, bags of popcorn, and the plush stuffed pumpkins, can’t it?

After all, as Emma says, we have enough stuff anyway.

Brad Hirschfield

Jeanne Bernick, raised on a cattle ranch in southern Missouri, is a transplant to Iowa after marrying Walcott native Scott Bernick.

She is full-time mother to Emma, Sarah and Lucy and a part-time writer and editor for Farm Journal magazine, the nation’s largest farm publication.

She is a lover of horses and wilderness and an avid reader.

Raised a Southern Baptist, Jeanne is grateful to St. Paul Lutheran Church for teaching her that she is saved by nothing more than grace through faith.

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"Let me keep my mind on what matters...which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished. " ~Mary Oliver