Building on the Rock

By Mrs Jennifer Spies

Posted on 12 June 2009

As our society and more specifically, families in our schools, are affected by the economic downturn there is a great opportunity, in our classrooms, to focus on values we can depend upon. For many in our school communities this financial crisis follows a long period of wealth creation and accumulation that appeared not only dependable but unending. In a very short space of time however, we have seen investments plummet and unemployment rise leading many to reevaluate the trustworthiness of economic advice and financial security.

Speaking in Canberra recently, Professor Ian Harper (economist) suggested that people are searching for meaning, purpose and hope in times such as these. Even when the economy was booming, he said, people were stressed, anxious and depressed, drawing the conclusion that it is not only in times of crisis that meaning cannot be found in economics. As he pointed out, economics is a good servant but a poor master. Students in our schools, however, have been growing up in a consumer driven society. Even when things started to deteriorate at a federal level the advice we were all given was to go out and spend, reinforcing the idea that accumulating material goods will help to solve our financial problems.

Many of us are aware of what the Bible has to say about building our lives on a sure foundation and we should be sharing such truth with our students as they inevitably question what this all means for them. As we help members of our school communities to understand what it means to store up our treasures in heaven rather than here on Earth, we will be helping them to establish a firm foundation of gospel  and Biblical truth - values on which we can truly depend.