|
Friends United Meeting |
 |
June 2001
Valiant for Truth
Countering Affluenza
By Trish Edwards-Konic
"How do we raise faithful children in the affluent world they inhabit?" For hours each day, their world consists of peer pressures at school regarding clothes, possessions and performance. Hours each week in front of the television, even if the programming is educational and good, exposes them to countless commercials suggesting that the good life is found in consumption. Affluenza, like a tiny flu virus, attacks the souls of our children.
Affluenza is the termed coined to describe an epidemic of over consumption and its often negative effects on children--alienation, laziness, arrogance and low self-esteem. Values such as hard work, self sacrifice and stewardship are difficult to impart when parents and/or the world around them indulge material desires.
Ethical underpinnings of humility, generosity and charity come, not from what one has, but from a relationship with God through Christ. Attending Sunday School and church for 2 hours a week does not counterbalance the hours of affluenza influence during the week. The church needs to offer more learning possibilities for children, but ultimately, the family is where children are exposed and learn core values. Several things families can do are:
1. Teach children they are God's children and their identity is found
in that relationship, not externally.
2. Spend time with your children rather than spending money on them. Busy
parents cannot make up for lost time by materialism.
3. Practice what you preach. Pay attention to the values you impart through
the house you buy, the car you drive, vacations you take. What values
do you teach in the ways you interact with other people?
4. Teach children how to manage money. Although not decision makers in
the use of household spending, children should learn the relationship
between earning and spending, including giving to charity.
5. Children gain self-respect from work, whether paid or volunteer. Stewardship
is more than finances; it includes time and talent as well.
6. Read the Bible together, pray together (besides before meals), share
how God informs your decision-making and your way of life.
Jesus' words are the counterbalance to affluenza, "Don't store up treasures for yourself here on earth, but store your treasures in heaven. You cannot serve both God and worldly riches." (Matthew 6:19-20, 24)
If we claim affluenza has no impact upon us, we delude ourselves. Faithfulness to Jesus Christ brings our hearts, our lives and our culture under the Cross and into Christ's new and living way.
Copyright (c) 2001 Friends United Meeting
Return to June 2001 Contents page