Giving our money, time, and love to others is an outpouring of God’s love for us. Teaching our kids to have giving hearts is important to us, because it will enrich their lives and help them to be people of gratitude rather than entitlement. Teaching kids to give can be a challenge, but it is worth it. We talk about giving, model service in front of them, give them opportunities to serve with us and each other, and try to lead by example. This week I got the kids involved in a giving project for my very favorite non-profit outreach ministry (YoungLives – a Christian outreach to teen moms & their babies), and tied it in to a story from The Jesus Storybook Bible
In “Filled Full”, author Sally Lloyd-Jones shares how Jesus fed the crowd of over 5000 people using only 5 loaves and 2 fish. He miraculously filled not only the hearts of the people, but also their stomachs, with the sacrifice of one little boy’s lunch. He takes the emptiness in our lives and fills it up. When we are willing to give, He can and will use it to do BIG things. To demonstrate this and give them an opportunity to give to others, I invited the kids to help me fill Easter eggs for our upcoming YoungLives egg hunt. I told them how much joy it would bring our YoungLives friends as they found the eggs. I showed them how to place a piece of candy in each egg, and we talked about how this act of giving our candy and eggs would be used by God. It was sweet, simple, and fun.
How do you teach kids to give? Check out our other posts using the Jesus Storybook Bible here, and our DIY Resurrection Eggs here.
Be sure to visit the Jesus Storybook Bible Hands On Activity Series here to find great activities to go with all 40 stories in the book.
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