Do you remember that VeggieTales song? It was in a video about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. VT changed the words because it said ‘don’t love my Momma or my Daddy, just the bunny.’ I couldn’t link to it, but you can watch it on YouTube. So funny! Anywho…I have our own bunny story to tell (enough rabbit trails for right now :-)
When we got home after Christmas we were clearing out some of our old toys to give away. Landree has a really hard time with this. EVERY. TOY. IS. HER. FAVORITE. She seriously can remember where everything came from, and who gave it to her, and what the occasion was. seriously! How do you teach a 5 year old to be generous? How about a 31 year old? Not going to lie-it’s hard for me at times too. I ordered a World Vision Catalog before Christmas for us to pick something to give and we never got around to it so one night after reading our Bible story we showed Landree the catalog and told her she could pick anything she wanted for us to give. She chose a bunny (they are only $16 dollars) and the cutest thing in the catalog. I didn’t tell her they would be eaten or sold for food :) Just that they would help someone make money so they could buy food for their family or send their children to school. Wow, it’s so hard to grasp how fortunate we really are. Our little girl has so many toys, and a warm bed and comfy jammies, and more clothes than the children’s sections at some stores. And some kids will go to sleep on the ground tonight lucky if they are in a shelter or even have parents not to mention if they have food to eat or water to drink. So in our own little very small way we want to help and to teach her to give. We made a little jar with a bunny picture on it and I gave her a few dollars of cash I had and she was so excited to raid her piggy bank (and give some of her money-just keeping it real) and find other ways for us to save. She told me not to buy any more groceries and we could use that money. I was thinking more along the lines of not buying prizes at Target or going out to eat so much. We are also thinking about doing some sort of allowance. I don’t like that word or know how we’ll do it, what do you guys do? Ideas? And last night some of the college students gave her some change, and today we had such a fun blessing of someone paying for our lunch at the Chickfila drive through so I let Landree have that money and now we are only $2 away from her first bunny! I’m so excited for her to be able to give that gift! What do you do to teach your kids generosity?
2 comments:
This a great idea. And leaves me to try to think of some way to teach generosity. I kind of thought adopting a kid through Compassion and we would write letters and such....don't know if she is old enough.
I have also thought about doings something like this
http://www.daveramsey.com/specials/junior?ictid=ksbb_jr
but haven't really done all of my homework on it yet.
Thanks for this post. It's gotten me to think!
Love! Great idea! We are just starting the whole allowance idea with our littles and a portion of the allowance goes to giving to church. If you are not gifted with a giving heart then it is a very hard thing to try and "teach" when they are older...I think it is so important that they grow up knowing how to give! I am still learning! :)
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