When Kids are Generous

I have been working in Sunday School for a couple years and every time a project or a need is brought to the kids attention there is always some little one that goes above and beyond the call and shows a really generous heart. A few years back we started making crafts to sell because we were led by an example of a little girl who had done the same on her own initiative and raised money to buy school supplies for children. This year was no different! We have sponsored a little boy *who is now a teenager* from Romania for a couple of years and when we started in September we wanted to make a more concerted effort to talk about him and connect him a bit more to our kids whose offering helps to support him. I was so excited when I saw little ones starting to remember to collect their coins, but even more so when I saw the look of joy and pride on their faces when they started bringing ROLLS and ROLLS of pennies and coins that they had personally rolled to donate to our offering. It's wonderful!

Last week I was at one of my art gallery parties and the little girl had asked her friends to donate her gifts to Toys for Tots! I personally see HOW long and HOW many gifts these kiddos get at parties since usually there are about 10 kids they invite, and they get some LOOT!!! It usually takes a little while for them to get around to opening them all and is pretty much the best part of the party for most of the kids! (I don't blame them a bit!!!) But this little girl had decided in the summer that she wanted to collect toys for kids at Christmas and she also donated all her birthday money for the soup kitchen.....lets just say that I was a bit inspired and filled with admiration for her example of a generous heart!

This week I worked in a Grade Six class and noticed a girl had a cute little haircut so I told her I loved it! She told me she had donated her hair to cancer research! She's not the first one in her class either! I think that is PRETTY amazing and I've heard of a few other kids who have done that too. What a blessing to some little girl!

I just love how generous and filled with love people are all through the year, but I love to see it at Christmas! I love seeing and hearing stories about little ones who are building their character and developing patterns of being generous in their childhood that will make them the kind of adult you will really want to have as a friend and partner and coworker and boss! 

I am so thankful I have a generous family and boyfriend! That is one quality that I admire so much in my siblings and my mom and dad, especially since we have all struggled so much with money and finding work and just paying our monthly bills sometimes!! Over the years I can't even count the times that I had to borrow money or have been given gifts of money from people I love (sometimes in secret, sometimes slipped in my purse, sometimes in a card or letter, sometimes in a gift card). Its very very humbling to learn to accept generosity because I would so rather be the GIVER than the RECEIVER...but those gifts of kindness have got me through the hardest times and I have been so thankful that I have parents that value generosity too! My mom has already started her Christmas goodies deliveries to people she loves and runs around doing errands for people who need her help and my dad loves buying presents for his kids and then wrapping them in newspaper....they are already lined up on a bookshelf and are the first thing you see when you walk in our door! And don't even get me started on how my sister shares her groceries with her siblings every week! Its very rare that we go to her house and don't get a yummy snack...actually I don't think its EVER happened! I appreciate and love my generous siblings hearts so much! We LOVE giving gifts!!!

I am so excited to have a little extra money this year to buy some small presents and I keep thanking God for that (I followed my Mom's lead who collects things she finds all through the year in baskets for all of us in her big closet) and last night I wrapped a few little things and was just thinking of how last year I had NO money and NO presents to give and I felt so sad about that! I know that there is lessons to be learned in creative generosity and I am blessed to have been raised in a family that is generous!