I’m going to be a bit off in the theme of my blog site for this entry. I felt the need to write this which is something that is very personal to me. Anyway, my blog site is about Life and Personal Finance right? Allow me write about Life this time around.

I just came from a prayer meeting from my church at Victory Green Hills. We are on our 2^nd day of our annual prayer & fasting week. Fasting has always been one of those activities that I get anxious about because it really challenges my discipline and yet at the same time it is a time I experience a lot of breakthroughs.

Our prayer meetings have themes and tonight, the theme was about the youth. I was having second thoughts of attending tonight’s meeting since I am still ‘woozy’ from fasting, a bit dizzy and tired. My teen-aged daughters prevailed upon me since one of their close friends was to give a testimony. It was encouraging to see that our church is really reaching out and preparing the next generation by engaging them and discipling them. As a father, I am always concerned about the future of my children and I will do anything that I can to provide a good future for them. However, I must always realize the limitations of what I can do. No matter what we do, what lies for the future of our children is really beyond our control – regardless of how we think it can be so. The best thing we can really do is to teach them, train them, guide them and show them and provide an environment for them to experience what their true purpose is in life is.

During the prayer meeting, I listened to the testimony of a senior year high school student from Ateneo, Avram Francisco. He recalled how he had many of the usual issues of a typical teenager which revolves around self-centeredness, as many of us are. Through engagement by his relatives, Avram eventually got to know Christ and surrendered his life to Him. Story didn’t really turned out too great when he gave his life to Christ since he still had to deal with some more issues which he has not surrendered, as he narrated in his testimony. It took another encounter for him to realize what it really meant to be a disciple of Jesus and his life has never been the same twice. Avram now leads other students to Christ and has been passionate about the calling God impressed upon him – to live for others and to bring them to Christ. It is not only the teen aged youth he is leading, he also patiently leads a group of young boys – teaching them about Jesus and being a good Kuya to the kids. Avram’s story is merely the beginning and if he continues to put Christ in the center of his life, I am confident that many things are in store for this guy and I may just write about him again. Avram was also inspired into discipleship by a preaching of our Pastor Dennis Sy during their youth camp last summer. Our Pastor used the scripture from Jude 1:23 (NIV): “save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”

This experience made me look back on my youth, on how lost and misguided I was. It took decades for me to finally knock some sense into my hard head and realize my true purpose in life: that of worship of the Lord. I wonder how my life would have turned out if I had a friend like the many youth I see at our church – engaging their friends and getting them to have a personal relationship with Christ.  I am pretty sure my life would have less of the many wrong decisions I made. But God has his ways and his will is always perfect; I have stopped questioning his ways and his timing so I am just assuming that it was God’s plan for me to get to know Him when I was 40 instead of 14 or so.

My wife and I are always thankful to the Lord that our children has also become disciples of Christ, otherwise I would probably already have a heart problem from worrying what they are up to all the time, haha!

We really need to get them young, help them get to know Christ at the earliest time possible. That’s the best thing we can do for the next generation.

Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. – Psalm 34:11, NIV

*photo by Larry Uy

Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Proverbs 22:6, NIV

A few moments ago my my heart was filled with joy because of my 8 year old son Riggs. He got in our bed and in between my wife and I, got his bible and asked me where we stopped. My sons and I read the Bible together — I usually read to them but I also let Riggs read a few verses on his own as practice.

Earlier was a different scene — without prodding from me or my wife, Riggs said he wanted to read the Bible and he did so on his own. He just asked me where he should start and he started reading aloud on his own. He actually read the Parable of the Sower, quite lengthy for my son yet he persevered and completed the whole story.

As parents, we often think about the future of our children and in some cases, even worry about their future. Many times, we feel we want to do everything we can to ensure a bright future for them but we soon face the fact that when they are grown, there’s really not much we can do for them anymore. The best insurance for their future is teaching them the right values — from hard work to finances, from relationships to respect… and most especially, to love God more than anything else in their lives. When we take time and impress upon them these virtues, you can be assured that they will not only live successful and happy lives, they will live godly lives.

Oh by the way, as Riggs was reading out aloud, his younger brother Chino was near him and listening to his Kuya Riggs. In a short while, I am sure that Chino will follow in his Kuya’s steps… like Riggs did with her 2 older sisters.

As a parent, it can’t get any better than this. Thank you God for all these.

Appears in my column at Business Mirror, 05.03.2010

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Sometime last year, the show Shop Talk at ANC invited my daughter Billie as its guest. The show invited children of finance personalities they often invite as guests in the show. It was nice to listen to young people talk about finances and how they deal with the issues involved.

One of the guests was a young boy, barely in his teens, but was talking confidently about managing his portfolio. The host of the show was amazed at this wonder boy and how he was doing what he was talking about. I found out later that he had brothers who were all financially savvy. In my curiosity, I spoke to their father to find out more about them.

They are the Fausto brothers —Martin, Enrique and Anton—sons of Marvin and Rose Fausto. Marvin used to be the Head of Trust of Equitable PCI Bank; he is now the Head of Investments of Banco De Oro. Rose, prior to becoming a full-time homemaker, was also an investment banker.

Martin, the oldest, is 19 years old and an incoming junior taking up Management at the Ateneo de Manila University. Enrique, the second, turned 17 last month, an incoming high-school senior in Xavier School. Anton, the youngest, is 13. He graduated with honors from the Ateneo Grade School in March. His ambition is to be the country’s youngest billionaire. The boys are well-rounded, with passions involving sports, music and dance.

The brothers have been exposed to financial literacy very early in life. When they were still babies, their parents opened their individual savings accounts. They have since been saving from their allowance, cash gifts and occasional earnings from different endeavors. They were also gifted a few shares of stocks of companies that they could easily understand when they were still very young. Today, they buy their own stocks with their own money. Since last year, their parents have transferred to them the responsibility of updating their individual balance sheets on a quarterly basis.

These boys can put many adults to shame. In fact, I can say they are even wealthier than most married people I know! As young as they are, I know they have a great future ahead of them.

What sets these boys apart from many kids out there? Their parents decided early to impart very important values to them, especially financial literacy.

Unfortunately, the Fausto family is a very rare breed and the Fausto brothers are really exceptions to the rule. Many parents often teach their children the wrong values; they put too much emphasis on academic excellence and forget to teach the their children the realities of life—like financial principles. While it is definitely important, academic education is often incomplete, limited and at times even irrelevant. As parents, we should also teach our children values and principles that will hone their character and practical education that will shape their future like finance and entrepreneurship.

It is a fact that parents are the best teachers. Yet we leave the complete education of our children to educational institutions. Isn’t it time we examined how our children are being educated? Let us take part in this very important stage in their lives…that is the best thing we can do for them. “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”—Proverbs 22:6, NIV.

Victory Greenhills, in cooperation with the Registered Financial Planner Institute, brings you BLUE CHIP: Financial Literacy Program for the Youth. This is a two-day learning session on practical finance for high-school and college students (ages 13 to 20) and will be on May 13 and 14 at the Victory Center, Upper Level, Promenade Greenhills. For inquiries on BLUE CHIP, please get in touch with Sheryn Alvarez at 744-8121 or 0917-5117796.