What will our kids know? For that matter, what do we know?

If you don't want to know what I think--don't read this! :) This is more then I usually share on a topic I don't usually go to...beware!

With the economy in a spin, I think that it will become more important for us to have basic survivor skills. Here's a prime example. Groceries. Are we equipped, and are we equipping our children to be able to take care of themselves if groceries become less available or cost so much that we can't buy what we once could? Can we bake with out a box? Will our children be able too? Can we grow a garden?

I grew up on a farm, for several of those years we had a garden, and yet I would struggle to pull one together myself. Between the time commitment and the general lack of knowing how to do it, I choose not too. Plus it's just easier to go to the store then come home and pull weeds or can. YUCK, I would rather not own a pressure cooker or 1,000 cans with 2 parts to the lid!

Seriously though, the more the world seems to be on a down hill track, the more I consider, maybe I should give it a try. I mean we buy more canned tomatoes then most! Everything we eat has tomato in it. Maybe I should have the kids out there learning it with me. Maybe.

We try to enforce a work ethic with our kids, because we believe the jobs of sitting and doing less for more money are going to be few and far between. We want our kids to know how to clean and cook and fix things, we want them to take the initiative to do so on their own. While they may feel that it's not fair to have chores or certain expectations we hold them too, life is not going to be fair. If they can't produce work at a higher and better level then the others their age and older then they won't have a job. If they don't have a job they better know ways to provide in spite of it. The garden is one example.

I'm not a "doom and gloom" parent. I don't tell my kids that there is nothing to live for. On the contrary I believe as Christians we have a lot to live for. It's going to be more and more important for us to know the Word, not just believe in it. It's going to be more and more important for us to speak the truth and to live it. When others around us are falling into pits of depression and suicide we will have to share the glue that holds things together. We have hope. We have joy. We have peace. We have Love. We can and should live like we do.

I know that God has not promised us that life will be fair. God has promised that He will be faithful. I have personally experienced God's faithfulness in good and bad times. I have seen first hand how He provides, or enables us to provide through circumstances that are beyond our control. If you think it can't or won't happen to you I dare you to show me in God's word where that is supported. You can't have faith in the job you choose, people in every aspect of life are loosing jobs. You can't have faith in your income,companies are getting people to give up part of their salaries already. You can't count on things of this world. You can only count on God.

If you trust in God and are faithful to Him, I believe that He will direct your paths. I don't know what God is prompting in your heart, it may be a garden, it may be something completely different. I encourage you, if there is anything God is placing on your heart to do, not to wait, but to do it. That's what will help us grow and mature as Christians and be ready for the next step, and the next. He will equip us for what our future holds, as bright or dim as the future may become. It is my hope that things turn around, it is my desire to be prepared if they do not.