Earning and giving...!

TROWEL & SWORD

Resources - Children's Pages

August 2001

Earning and giving...!

Anne Groenenboom

“I’m going to see if I can get some jobs around the neighbourhood!” Chris announced, but Mum looked rather doubtful.

“I don’t want you making a nuisance of yourself with the neighbours, Chris, and I don’t want you going to houses where we don’t know the people, either,” she told him.

“But that means I can’t ask anyone!” Chris muttered.

“No, Chris, it means that you must think carefully about how you ask. You might put people on the spot if you ask them for work, and they may give you jobs, even if they can’t afford it. You have to think of a better way to ask them,” Mum explained.

“Why don’t you advertise in the paper?” Amy suggested.

“It costs too much, Amy,” Chris said scornfully.

“It’s not a bad idea, though, Chris. Why don’t you make some ads to put in people’s letterboxes? That would give them time to think about jobs and how much to pay you.” Mum commented. “And we could assess whether the payment was fair and whether you are capable of doing the job.”

Chris nodded and started thinking about what to put on his ads. After several attempts he wrote “WORK WANTED” 11 year old boy willing to do odd jobs after school.” He wrote his name and phone number at the bottom of the page.

“That looks good, Chris,” Mum commented. “How many do you need?”
Chris did a quick count and decided he’d need twenty pages.

“I’ll start them now. It’s going to take me ages to get them all done,” he said. Amy offered to help him, so they spent the next hour busily printing. Chris sighed with relief when he finally counted twenty pages into a pile.

“Is it OK if I go and deliver these now?” he asked his mother.

“Yes, as long as you’re back before dark,” Mum replied. “That gives you half an hour, so don’t waste too much time.”

Chris hurried off, clutching his bundle of papers.

The next afternoon Chris raced home from school, anxious to see if anyone had phoned him, but there had been no calls. However, before long the phone rang, but when Chris answered eagerly, it was one of Mum’s friends. Mum spoke for several minutes, while Chris hoped she wouldn’t be on the phone too long. After what seemed like ages, Mum said, “Chris, Mrs Bryant wants to know if you’d do some work for her mother, who lives near the school.”

Chris grabbed the phone and listened to Mrs Bryant, then said excitedly, “Yes, I think that would be OK, Mrs Bryant. I’ll call in after school tomorrow.” He made a note of the address and announced, “I’m going to look after two dogs and a cat while Mrs Bryant’s mother is away for six weeks. That’ll be easy money because I’ll be doing it for so long!”

After school next day Chris went to meet Mrs Bryant and her mother, Mrs Raymond. They explained that the dogs needed to be taken for a walk each day, as well as being fed, Chris nodded. He was a little worried about how big the dogs were, but they seemed friendly enough. Mrs Raymond said she would go with Chris the first day, just to make sure he knew what to do. She suggested that Chris should get to know the dogs before they took them out, so Chris played with them for a while, and learned what commands to use with them.

When they set off with the dogs, Chris discovered that it wasn’t easy walking with a big dog, who wanted to sniff at everything and kept pulling on the lead. He wondered how he’d manage the two dogs together, the way Mrs Raymond did, but he didn’t mention his worries to her, for fear that he’d lose the job.

When they arrived back at Mrs Raymond’s house, Chris had to feed the dogs and the cat, making sure that the dogs didn’t steal the cat’s food. That wasn’t easy either, but he persevered and Mrs Raymond seemed happy enough with his efforts. She showed him where the cans of food were kept, reminded him about washing the animals’ dishes each day and told him to make sure the gate was securely closed before he went home each evening.

When Chris arrived home, he told everyone what he had to do. They agreed that it sounded like a good job, but Chris wasn’t so sure, although he didn’t say anything. The next afternoon when he tried to take both the dogs for a walk, he found that he just couldn’t manage them together. He left Sam, the smaller dog behind, howling mournfully, while he took Harry, the bigger one, then he came back and left Harry behind while he took Sam for his walk. As Chris headed along the street he discovered that Harry could howl even louder than Sam and he hoped that Mrs Raymond’s neighbours wouldn’t complain about the noise. When he returned, with his arms aching from holding the dog leads, Chris fed the animals, closed the gate carefully and hurried off home, then suddenly remembered that he’d forgotten to wash the dishes. He thought how hungrily the animals had licked their plates and decided that the dishes could wait until next day.

Chris groaned when Amy told him that there was another job for him. How could he ever manage other jobs when it took all his time to look after the animals? He sat down miserably on the couch. Mum noticed how tired he looked and asked how the job had gone. Chris hadn’t intended to tell his parents how hard his job was, but he couldn’t help telling his mother what had happened.

“Well, Chris, you’ll just have to find a way to manage, because you’ve already promised Mrs Raymond to look after her animals and you can’t let her down,” Mum stated. “Why don’t you get someone to help you?” she suggested.

“But then I’d have to share the money with whoever helped me!” Chris complained. He brightened up, however, when Amy offered to help him.

“I could take the small dog and you could take the big one,” Amy suggested.

Chris thought about this for a moment. Amy was only a little kid, so he wouldn’t have to pay her as much as one of his friends.

“Maybe it would work out OK.” Chris remarked. “We’ll give it a go.”
The next afternoon when Chris and Amy took the dogs for a walk, the dogs behaved quite well and after they fed the animals, she helped Chris wash the pets’ dishes. As they headed for home after making sure the gate was closed securely, Chris was feeling more cheerful. At home he made a timetable to fit some other jobs in as well. He worked out that if he looked after the pets and mowed the Jackson’s lawn each week, he’d have well over $100 by the time Mrs Raymond came home again. Next, he made a list of all the things he would buy for himself, now he was earning some money.

Chris showed Dad the timetable and the list, then Dad looked at Chris.
“I think you’ve forgotten something, Chris. If Amy is helping you, then you should pay her from the money you’re earning.”

Chris hesitated for a moment, then replied, ”I’m going to give her $10.”

“Well, that’s not very fair, Chris. She’s doing just as much work as you are.”

“But she’s only a little kid,” Chris argued hotly. “She doesn’t need as much money as I do!”

Dad looked at Chris very sternly and Chris knew exactly what he was thinking.

“I guess I’d better give her more than $10,” Chris admitted grudgingly.

“You should give her half. You can’t do the job without her!” Dad stated. “Don’t forget that you’ll make extra money from the other jobs, if Amy helps you with the animals, otherwise you won’t have any spare time to do them.”
Chris nodded grudgingly, then his father spoke again.

“Another thing you’re forgetting, Chris, is that you should be giving part of what you earn to the Lord, just the way you do with your pocket money.”

“But I have lots of things I want to buy!” Chris argued.

“Chris, we could say the same thing too, but we always set aside part of my pay for the Lord, because it’s what the Bible tells us to do.” Dad reminded him. Chris nodded reluctantly. He knew what Dad said was true because they’d talked about it before. He knew too, just how much he should give.

“OK, Dad, if you give me some little envelopes, I’ll put some of my money in collection each time I get paid... and you’d better give some envelopes to Amy too! She’s not too little to give part of her money to the Lord,” Chris stated.

“I’m glad you’ve made that decision, Chris. I know it’s hard when you want to buy things, but don’t forget that if you give to the Lord what is due to Him, you will receive His blessing over and over again.”

SOMETHING TO DO:

1. Discuss this story with your parents and see how it applies to you.
2. Read 2 Corinthians 8:1 – 9 together and ask them to explain what it means for believers and for you as a family.

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