Jacob, 6, has more than once given lavishly from his personal savings piggy bank. He is very good with numbers and counts his change and dollars and ciphers out how much he has by writing down pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, dollars he has then adding them together.
This evening we wondered aloud why his bank was lower than usual. He said, “I gave $46 to my school.”
“When did you do that, Jacob,” Jill asked.
“Last week. I put money in my wallet and gave it to Ms. Wilson,” he said. “You and dad didn’t even know.”
Jill and I were tickled about the whole thing, how he’d done it without us knowing, how we have a son who is naturally generous. Will we teach him not to be so lavish and irrational, giving the majority of his money? May we never lessen the love and goodness of someone in favor of rationality. Better to have a millstone tied around our necks and be thrown into the sea. That doesn’t mean we won’t teach him frugality and stewardship as well, but that’s for another day. Today he was an amazingly generous six-year-old boy.
2 Cor. 8:1-8
Brothers and sisters, we want you to know how God showed his kindness to the churches in the province of Macedonia.
[2] While they were being severely tested by suffering, their overflowing joy, along with their extreme poverty, has made them even more generous. [3] I assure you that by their own free will they have given all they could, even more than they could afford. [4] They made an appeal to us, begging us to let them participate in the ministry of God’s kindness to his holy people {in Jerusalem}. [5] They did more than we had expected. First, they gave themselves to the Lord and to us, since this was God’s will. [6] This led us to urge Titus to finish his work of God’s kindness among you in the same way as he had already started it.
[7] Indeed, the more your faith, your ability to speak, your knowledge, your dedication, and your love for us increase, the more we want you to participate in this work of God’s kindness.
[8] I’m not commanding you, but I’m testing how genuine your love is by pointing out the dedication of others. [9] You know about the kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was rich, yet for your sake he became poor in order to make you rich through his poverty.
Last summer my whole family went to California. The grandparents gave each of them $50 to spend as they wished. On Sunday, we went to a little congregation of maybe 30 people in Encinitas. Later in the week I asked Matt how much spending money he had left from G-momma and G-daddy. He said kinda quietly “none”. Being my typical self, I said incredulously “where did you blow it all that fast?” He very quietly responded “I put it all in the plate Sunday at the church in Encinitas.” I walked UNDER the door and went back to another room in shame.
Don’t our children wash our feet more than we wash theirs sometimes?
Beautiful. I know my children often remind me what “joy in giving” is meant to look like.
Wow! What an example of giving like Jesus taught – quietly and with no one knowing. Thanks, Jacob, for your leading us by your example. We love you, Nammy and Pops
I am hoping you will share your story.
operation kindness carrollton