Teach Children to Give
In the spirit of training up a child in the way, he/she should go, we look at teaching children to give. I have met children who seem to me natural givers; who even as toddlers, break a piece of their sandwich or dip out a handful of cheerios to pass over to another child or even an adult. But every child isn’t like that. Ever hear a child, exclaim, “Mine! Mine!”
In prior articles, we talked about the act of giving to God, tithes and offerings. Today, we look at giving to others. Giving is biblical and something important to understand is that there is no separate bible for children. God’s Word is written to His people. Giving is the essence of charity, which is love. This article in no way summarizes all love encompasses, but the Jesus does command us to give.
What You Can Do
Hopefully your child works with a budget, like you do. If not, ready my article, Teach Your Children to Budget. So, a percentage of money is set aside for Tithing. The bible says 10%, so that’s what I teach. Additional giving, outside of tithing, comes from your child’s incidental budget. Most young children will have 3 categories: tithes (10%), savings (10%), and incidentals (80%).
- From the 80%, help your child identify an amount to give.
- Help them figure out where to keep that money. It may be a separate place in their purse or wallet, if they have one. It may be in an envelope, Ziploc, or a change purse.
- Carry their giving envelope for them, if they are young. But, make sure it’s easily identified as theirs.
- Teach them to look for opportunities to give (with discernment). This will take place over time as you use every day teachable moments.
- Make sure they don’t just give to people they know, people they like, people who are related to them, and/or people who can give back to them.
- Teach them to give, not looking for anything in return- not even a thank you; and even opportunities to give anonymously.
Acknowledge their generosity and instill a sense of humility at being used by Jesus to help others.
Also, teach children to be generous in other ways:
- Being generous with their time; taking time to help someone in need.
- Being generous with knowledge; sharing what they know to help others.
- Being generous with their gifts; using what they are good at to help others.
Conclusion
Teach children to give. Use every day situations to point out needs and point out opportunities. Sometimes it is a homeless person on the street. Sometimes it’s not as obvious. But will serve them well to learn this at a young age. Their lives will be all the more blessed by their generosity. Jesus’ Words are true, it is more blessed to give than to receive. We could easily be on the other side. May God bless you as you be a blessing and teach your little ones the same.
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