Young Adults & Marriage - Part 8

Transcription

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Announcer:  What do your teenagers need? A vision and good hard work makes a huge difference in preparing for life.

Michael Pearl:  Now, let me change the subject. Most of all, what you need to give your children is a vision, and the possibility of it coming to pass. Everybody needs a vision. Number one, a vision.

Number two, everybody needs a job, needs to be working towards that vision. A job, to be a job, has to be a duty that must be performed whether you're sick or feel good or not. To be a job, it's got to hurt, but it's got to be your responsibility. No one does that unless it is the only avenue to groceries, shoes, clothes, and well-being.

In other words, if you're filthy rich and you give your kids everything, and you say, "Okay I'm going to give you the job of cutting the grass. We're going to leave the grass cutter. You're going to have to cut it," the kid's not going to learn a thing. He's having to cut the grass, and he knows it's some kind of a training session and it will keep him out of trouble for a while, but he's not going to appreciate it.

But if you're filthy rich and you say to your son, "Son, you're now 12 years old. I'm never going to buy you another pair of shoes. I'm never going to buy you another pair of pants or a shirt. From now on, if you have any clothes whatsoever, you're going to pay for them."

He'll say, "Well Daddy, you make a lot of money. I'll just become one of your salesmen."

"No, you won't do that either. You're not working for me."

"Well, who do I work for?"

"Well, there's a Mexican out there in the yard might need some help. Go out and ask him." You put your son to work where he has to work.

I remember my boys back they were 10, 11 years old, we'd go out to get a hamburger. "What would you like?"

"Well, a hamburger, I want a milkshake, I want some French fries."

All right. The day came when I said, "Okay, I'm not buying you any more groceries like that. If you get a hamburger, it's your own."

They said, "Well, let's go get a hamburger," so I went out and I said, "What do you want?"

They said, "The kiddy burger there, what is it called?"

[laughter]

Michael:  "I want one kiddy burger. What do you want to drink, son?"

"Water." [laughter]

Michael:  "Like some fries?"

"No fries. Do I save money if you take the cheese off of it?" It's amazing how they're not so hungry anymore when it's coming out of their pocket. My boys had to work and make money for themselves and so did my girls. I took care of my girls a little longer, but they had to make money. They had to work. They'd get out and do something, and they found different ways of staying at home and making a little dollar here, a dollar there. We taught them to work.

Then, each one of them had a vision. We allowed the kids to buy their own vehicles. I think the boys were probably 15 or 16 when they bought their first truck. Gabriel, how old was he when he bought his first piece of property? Less than 20, wasn't he? Or something like that.

Debi:  He was no more than 16.

Michael:  Okay. He bought a piece of property, and he started contracting, and he worked for others until he was about 19. Then he started contracting for himself, hired other people to work, and he bought another piece of property. He paid cash for them, and he didn't buy them on credit. He traveled. He was just down here in the Baja with his wife about three weeks ago, and they'll go to Colorado for six weeks in the fall. She killed five deer with a bow last year. [laughter]

Michael:  His sober-minded wife; and killed one wild hog. She's really a good hunter too. She's very athletic, just like he is. Then when she killed that hog and they hung it up to dress it out, all those little baby pigs fell out, and so she cried. She wasn't so tough after all. [laughter]

Michael:  But she'll kill another one next year, all the same. Where was I? [laughter]

Michael:  Nathan was contracting also. He doesn't do as well as Gabriel, because Gabriel will work very long hours, very fast, very hard, and make a lot of money. Nathan will stay an extra hour at home with his wife. I don't know what they do. [laughter]

Michael:  Then he'll get home an hour earlier with his wife, and then he'll take Saturday off and they'll go to town. Then he'll take Sunday afternoon off, and they'll go on a picnic. Then he'll get to work late on Monday because he and his wife need to do something again. Nathan is a lover and just really laid-back, and just in no hurry to get rich or get wealthy, so he owns his own piece of property. He's got his own house covered with tar paper, waiting for the finished lumber on the outside of it. But it is their home; they do own it. He's in the process of building it and has been ever since they got married . . .

[laughter]

Michael:   . . . three years ago, or something like that. But he's the most relaxed and laid-back and fun fellow, and very intelligent, the more intelligent one of the two. They're greatly different, the two boys are. But they both are hard working, both are self-sufficient, and both have ambition. Gabriel right now has been taking some courses in real estate. He's been visiting people. He's fixing to take another $2,000 course in real estate. He's been reading a lot of books and finances, and he intends to get rich in the next five years. He probably will.

Nathan doesn't care to be rich. He doesn't even want to be rich. He just wants supper on the table and his wife sitting across from him. It's all he cares for, you know? Gabriel and his wife, they both want to be rich, so they probably will be. He'll probably buy half of Colorado with the money when he gets rich, and put some kind of exotic African game on it, and charge other rich people to come out for $10,000 and kill one of them.

[laughter]

Michael:  Now, children need a vision that "I see a path whereby I can be what I want to be in life. I can see it at 16 or 17 years; I can see that I've got to do this. When that's done, then I'll do this, and then that. Eventually, I will arrive at it." If you do that, they will be constant. They won't make a foolish choice because they have a vision and steps. They don't want to cancel out that vision. Then they need to be working, to realize that vision. Shalom had a vision of being a nurse. I didn't think she ever would. I knew she'd get married, and all she'd nurse were her children.

[laughter]

Michael:  But she wanted to be a nurse. That was her idea. When she was 16 or 17, she starts studying nursing books and anatomy. She learned a whole lot about anatomy, and it was just an avid pursuit of hers. She had thoughts that maybe she'd go on to college, and she would study further. I knew she wouldn't. I knew she'd get married. But we encouraged her in that pursuit, because she had a vision. It occupied her time, kept her busy for a while there in the teenage years, 17, 18, 19 years old.

Then one day, somebody comes along and steals her away, and she'll never be a nurse. But at least she had a vision and something to work towards for a period of time to keep her occupied and keep her busy. She already uses the knowledge that she got, just like my wife has a great deal of knowledge in medicine and herbs, and she uses it to keep me alive and keep me regular.

[laughter]

Michael:  I don't mean the oat-bran kind of regular, I mean the other kind.

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Announcer:  Thanks for listening. We hope this helps or encourages you in some way today. As always, remember to check out our ever-changing specials.