A Good and Faithful Servant

A quiet evening at the Barclay house does not stay quiet for long. Jimmy finds his father in the living room and lays on the compliments so thickly that George guesses the truth right away: his son wants something. What Jimmy wants is twenty dollars for a video game called Zappazoid, which he insists is educational because a player cannot defeat the slimezoids from the planet Zap without first learning all about them. George is not convinced. Donna arrives to take her father's side against the video game and then asks for a new coat, a genuine Ralston herringbone with synthetic fur lining, on sale at Greenway's department store. Mary comes in to settle the squabbling and mentions the vacation George once promised her, perhaps the Bahamas. Outnumbered, George reminds them that the family is not independently wealthy and that money does not grow on trees. Then he admits that his old system, in which everyone simply comes to him with a hand out, may have outlived its usefulness. The children are getting older. It is time for a new plan.

Over at Whit's End, Whit has troubles of a different kind. Connie and Eugene have been sniping at each other ever since he returned from a business trip, this time over whether an article about earthworms in Biology Quarterly counts as comedy. Whit sends them off to work and asks them, without much hope, to keep their personalities to themselves. Donna stops by with her own news. Her parents have decided to put her and Jimmy on a budget, and she is bracing for the worst. Whit tells her that learning to handle money will teach her to be a good steward - a person who looks after what belongs to someone else. Everyone is a steward of God, he explains, because everything anyone has was given by Him, and He expects it to be cared for and used wisely. When Donna repeats her father's remark that money is a great motivator, Whit turns thoughtful. George has just given him an idea.

The Barclay plan is unveiled at a family meeting, television off. Each child will receive money automatically at the start of every month, an amount their parents calculated for the whole year and divided by twelve. It comes with five envelopes labeled tithe, save, spend, gifts and clothes. At least a tenth goes to the tithe envelope for the church and a tenth to savings, from any money that comes in, not only the monthly amount. The rest is split evenly among the last three. When an envelope is empty, it stays empty until the next month. Food, shelter and school supplies are still provided, but everything else is now the children's own responsibility, and part of the monthly amount has to be earned through extra work around the house. Ordinary chores do not count, because those belong to being a member of the family. Jimmy thinks the plan sounds interesting. Donna does not.

Whit's idea turns out to be a bonus. He offers Connie and Eugene a hundred dollars each at the end of the month, minus fifty cents for every argument he overhears and a dollar for every insult, since insults do more damage. It does not matter who starts it. Within seconds of hearing the terms, both of them have lost a dollar apiece.

The first real test comes at the mall. George and Mary drop the children off to shop alone and tell them to meet at Whit's End at four o'clock. Mary is uneasy, especially about Donna and that coat. Jimmy arrives having bought only a small tank for his soldier collection; he nearly bought Zappazoid, then realized it would leave him nothing for the Bible school retreat coming up in a couple of weeks. Donna turns up late and empty-handed. She was standing in line with the coat in her hands when she remembered what Whit had told her about being a steward, and she decided the coat was not a wise use of what God had given her. Instead she went by the church and put part of her money into the missionary fund. Her father tells her she will go on the retreat after all, because he intends to give it to her as a gift. Whit points out that this, too, is part of being a good steward, since giving freely is exactly what God does for people. It is called grace.

Connie and Eugene, meanwhile, come in to announce proudly that they have conquered their arguing and can collect their bonuses. Whit has to break the news that they used up every cent of that money a long time ago. It takes Connie only a moment to start blaming Eugene, and the arguing begins all over again.