One of the most important money skills that teens can glean from entrepreneurship is learning the importance and (inspiration) of giving back to God and others.
You may be wondering if giving is really a skill that can be taught. As a parent, I’m sure you’ve noticed that sharing doesn’t come naturally to anyone, especially children. We all tend to avoid things that are good for us like vegetables, hard work, and giving. Giving is not only biblical, but is a good habit to develop like eating our vegetables and working hard. Sending our children into the world with good habits is truly one of the best gifts we can give them.
Have you ever considered why God asks us to give Him the first fruits of our labor, to be kind and to think of others first? He certainly doesn’t need our money or time! Granted, kindness makes our world a better place, but now we have evidence that proves the tangible benefits of giving.
Catch The Benefits Of Giving!
Centuries before we understood the nature of germs, the Old Testament taught the importance of washing our hands. We’ve now discovered that kindness is as contagious as germs! The biological benefits of random acts of kindness are now a scientific fact.* Healthier hearts, more energy, increased self-esteem, optimism, and happiness are all side effects of kindness. It also lowers pain, stress, anxiety, depression and even your blood pressure.
It’s even been proven that onlookers of kind acts will “catch” the same benefits of kindness like elation and reduced stress and are 65% more likely to pay it forward.
Tom’s Shoes (read Homeschool-Entrepreneur.com/toms-shoes-profile) is famous for being one of the first companies to incorporate giving in their marketing plan. They promise to give one pair of shoes to a needy child for each pair of shoes you purchase from them. This may have helped Tom’s Shoes succeed, but now there are millions of children’s feet with good shoes on them that weren’t there before. This ‘marketing ploy’ has become contagious and has become a popular practice among a plethora of other businesses.
Giving Is a Habit We Learn
One of the first skills an entrepreneur must learn is how to recognize an unmet need and a profitable way to fill it. In our busy world filled with abundance and government assistance, sometimes it’s hard to find a need that isn’t already addressed. Often hidden in the most unlikely places, these unmet needs can be found in the marketplace or on the mission field.
Practicing kindness in giving will soon create a habit, and can be taught as a deliberate skill in good entrepreneurship. As parents, you can help your children develop eyes to see and meet these needs creatively with whatever means they have.
Assign Giving In Your Lesson Plan!
We homeschooled all four of our children and as they got older, one of their weekly homeschool assignments was to find a need and meet it in whatever way they were able.
Our oldest son was gifted at fixing things and loved to clean cars, while another son with his green thumb did yard work and gardening for others. Our daughter was one of the fastest, most thorough housekeepers I’ve ever known (no, she didn’t learn it from me). She also made the best chocolate chip cookies in 3 counties!
They all made a side income with these skills, but because they enjoyed what they did best, were happy to donate their services generously when needed. Beginning as a required assignment soon became a habit as they were always on the lookout in our church, homeschool group or neighborhood for someone that needed what they loved to do.
I have to confess at the beginning there may have been some complaining, procrastinating, and even some shortcuts taken, but in time they were doing it without thinking – or complaining. They might even confess they came to enjoy it! As grown adults with their own families, it warms my heart that this habit has stuck with them throughout life.
Teaching your teens to develop an awareness of the needs around them yields benefits well beyond starting a profitable business. Some additional benefits of their giving habits included making new, often unlikely friendships, discovering and developing new skills, and stumbling onto some great opportunities. Instead of a rule that must be obeyed, giving back has become a way of life that has proven its value to them over and over.
It’s up to us as parents to give our children a new vision to how giving back can be a way of life. Contrary to what the world teaches, their work can become their worship. This is what Christian entrepreneurship is all about and you can teach this to them!
A resource you might enjoy that takes the idea of work as worship to the next level is the Business as Mission movement (BAM). They have a wonderful book list on their website!
Find more about the business as missions movement on our website.
*Read more about the benefits of Random Acts of Kindness.
