Although her father had not left her much in material things, he had left her a set of values she would never lose, and for which she was grateful. Consider Jesus parable of the rich fool and imagine a few days after that man s death, the reading of his will. He left them big barns and an appetite for bigger ones. One fact is clear. Family values are determined by our attitudes about money.
Children acquire their systems of values.
They catch values from their parents. They learn the alphabet, but they catch values, primarily through what they figure out is their parent s attitude about money. Psychology Today magazine did a remarkable article a while back to prove this. The magazine did a reader survey on ethics and morals, seeking to determine how ethical the American people are and what factors determine our morality. Some 24,000 Americans returned the length questionnaire.