Winter 2012 | Volume 110 | Number 662

Let's Talk Money

What does being wise with money mean?

Photo Credit: Dave Kaphingst

At last year's Member Meeting (see Thrivent Financial News to learn more about this year's meetings in St. Louis and Milwaukee), I talked about three M's of membership: mutual, mission and money.

I sensed people were surprised when I said the word "money" aloud – particularly as one of the three M's of membership. Money, like water or air, is a vital part of our modern daily life. Life is a struggle if you don't have any money. Yet money is one of those topics we don't like to talk about. It's taboo in polite conversation.

Yet Jesus talked about money – a lot. He observed over and over again that money, like the air we breathe and the water we drink, has the power to either give life or cause harm.

We also need to talk about the nature of money. One church leader I know calls money stored-up service or love in an exchangeable form. If that's true, perhaps we need to think about who we are serving or loving with our financial decisions.

Thinking about money in this way gave us an idea. If we need to talk about money, yet we have a hard time doing it, why not ask kids what they think? Young people have an amazing way of taking the complicated and making it simple. So we decided to ask them.

We want kids, from preschool through high school, to tell us what they think it means to be wise with money. I know we're going to get some great answers, and we'll share them with you in our Summer 2012 issue.

Perhaps if you find it hard to talk about money, looking through the eyes of a child will help you with these important conversations in your life.

Bradford L. Hewitt,
President and
Chief Executive Officer