The Giving Jar

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Giving with a
happy heart. If you teach a child to give with a happy heart you will
raise a child who will never hesitate to lend a helping hand. Children
enjoy helping others, especially if they see their parents doing the
same. When a child's basic physical and emotional needs are met, they
are willing to share almost anything they have with someone in need.

My
daughter wanted to help others from the time she was old enough to
understand what it was she was doing. Before she was old enough for an
allowance she helped me go through her outgrown clothes and toys to
give away to charities. At Christmastime we would shop together for
needy families (she looked forward to this as much as picking out her
own gifts). And this doesn't mean we weren't needy ourselves. When my
daughter was young I was a single mom working and going to college, and
I was barely able to make ends meet. What little we had left over,
however, we used to help others. I am convinced that this act of
helping others took my daughter's focus off of our own circumstances
and created a passion in her for helping others. She always had food to
eat and clothes to wear--she did not sense a lack in her life and so
was willing to freely give anything she had.

As my
daughter got older and started getting an allowance, she started
spending her own money. She spent her allowance on family Christmas and
birthday presents (however small), started tithing, and started
contributing to charities of her choice. My daughter's allowance is
relatively small, compared to some of her friends, but that doesn't
keep her from making contributions, no matter how small, to people and
organizations she wants to help. Now that she's old enough to babysit,
she has even more money to decide what to do with. She decides what to
spend on herself, what to save, and what to give to others.

Our
family recently came up with an idea of how we could work together to
save up some money to help others. I am forever picking up loose change
around the house, on the floor, in the car, and in the bottom of my
purse. We decided to start a "Giving Jar" where we could deposit our
spare change, and then as the occasion arose, we would use it to help
others. We all pooled together our spare change and we already had more
than $15. I placed the jar on the kitchen counter and put a big label
on it that says "Giving Jar." It has motivated us all to save more and
is also a great conversational piece!

Don't think you
have to have a lot of money to give others a helping hand. Any amount,
no matter how small, develops in your child the gift of a giving heart.

About the Author

Originally published at Suite 101. Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer, mom, and owner of four home and family web sites. For complete resources for the Christian home, visit her web site at http://www.Christian-Parent.com.

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