Are my kids “self-reliant?”

At the risk of sounding a bit political, I thought I would share some thoughts on the Occupy Wall Street movement.  While I sympathize with people that are down on their luck, those that don’t have job, and those that are struggling to make ends meet, I don’t think that the answer is to blame Wall Street, or to expect our federal government to give continuous handouts to anyone and everyone.  I believe the “handout” role should be filled by our churches and charitable organizations for the most part, at the community level.  Whenever things happen at the federal level, there is a greater opportunity for mismanagement and corruption.

Our young people today seem to, in general, lack the understanding of what it means to be “self-reliant”.  There is a sense of entitlement among many of them that they “deserve” to get whatever they want.  It’s great to have aspirations and hopes that your “wants” will be fulfilled, but it needs to be backed up by the willingness to put in the time, effort, and hard work it takes to get where you want to be.

One of the benefits of the camp experience, I feel, is that it teaches our campers to be “self-reliant”.  For two or four weeks out of the year, they are “on their own”, many for the first time in their lives.  They don’t have mom and dad to go to for every little thing.  While they have loving counselors to talk with and turn to, they still have to learn to make decisions on their own, try new things on their own, and make new friends on their own.

Hopefully, you can find ways at home to help your children become more “self-reliant”.  Give them opportunities to make positive choices… help them to find answers to their problems without providing the solution to the problem yourself.  And most important of all, help them learn that in their quest for “self-reliance”, they can turn to Jesus to help them as well.  Philippians 4:13 says, “I  can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.”  With His help, we certainly can!

Ron Springs

Ridgecrest Summer Camps, Director