Week 46: Work Ethic/Financial Responsibility

Song: I Have Work Enough to Do (H. 224)

Thought: Learning to work begins in the home. Help your family by willingly participating in the work necessary to maintain a home. Learn early to handle your money wisely and live within your means. Follow the teachings of the prophets by paying your tithing, avoiding debt, and saving for the future. (For the Strength of Youth: Work and Self-Reliance)

Object Lesson: Plug Into the Power is a good option for highlighting the amount of energy that can and should be put into work and what the outcome will be.

Video:
Review the following statement by Elder Robert D. Hales: “The three most loving words are ‘I love you,’ and the four most caring words … are ‘We can’t afford it.’” Invite your family to watch the video “Becoming Provident Providers.” Ask them to think about and share possible reasons Elder Hales says “We can’t afford it” are the four most caring words. What blessings come from living within our means? How can we follow Sister Hales’s example? How can her example help us when we are tempted to live beyond our means?


Lesson Activity: Using the Work site on LDS.org, choose statements about work that you think will be meaningful to the your family. Give each family member a copy of one of the statements. Invite them to read the statement silently and pass it to the person sitting next to them. Have them continue until everyone has read each of the statements. Invite each person to select one that is especially meaningful to them and share why they finds it meaningful. What do they learn from these statements about the importance of work? How will learning how to work bless them and their families, now and in the future?

Alternatively, consider playing a board game together like "Life" or "Monopoly" and have an ongoing discussion with your family as you play about the role of work in earning money and making wise choices with our finances.

This Week's Challenge: As a family decide if your family could benefit from being focused on increased work ethic (possibly through employment outside the home or simply the work done in and around the home) or if the focus should be more on the financial aspect. If you choose finances, parents should decide what role to include children in the family budget and actually discuss your family's method for budgeting. What works? What doesn't? Communicate with your children about needs verses wants and reiterate the concept of "we can't afford it" being a means of demonstrating caring.