Studies have continually shown that small businesses create more than 70% of the new jobs in America, and most of these are family run businesses(1). The most powerful drive to succeed is family and family is held together by faith. This is the basic infrastructure that has sustained America’s prosperity and growth. If you think about it, most of the largest corporations in the world started out as family owned small businesses. A portion of what you accumulate is meant to be a blessing to your children. When you receive an inheritance from your parents, you are receiving the fruits of their labors. It represents their time, their passions, their labor and wisdom passed on to you.

An olive tree is a picture of a generational blessing passed on to the next generation. The Psalmist said, “I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love forever and ever.” When a Hebrew farmer planted an olive tree, he would be planting it for his children.  If we are to flourish like an olive tree, we need to start thinking in a long-term framework. The leaves of an olive tree were considered to signify abundance. Many times an olive tree lived and produced fruit, for 500 years.

Train your children to be givers. Let them see you be generous with others. Teach them God’s economy. This applies to both your spiritual children and your natural children. To train means teaching them the information, demonstrating for them to observe and see, giving them the chance to do it and coaching them afterwards. Most will learn your financial values and be good stewards of what you pass on to them.

1 Data from the Small Business Administration and the Bureau of Labor Statistics show this is true when talking about the new jobs created in the private sector, which provides the majority of the jobs in the U.S.