"all" the money from an 8 yr old girl's piggy bank
A Lifesong giver recently shared this story with us...an example of how we get to advocate WITH our children!
I was driving home from bible study one evening when my 8 yr old daughter asked, “Dad how do you get rich?” I asked her why she wanted to get rich and she said that she didn’t really know but when pressed she wanted to buy another American Girl doll. I explained to her that many children didn’t even have one doll, let alone two.
She wanted to know why some people were rich and some were poor so I answered because God makes some rich and some poor. I explained that if we are rich we should not use it for ourselves but we should give it to the poor to help them…this makes God happy. I very thoughtful little girl asked if I know some poor people. I told her that I did and she asked if I could take her to meet them so she could give them the money she has in her piggy bank.
Over the last few months she has asked me several times if I can take her to some poor people so that she can give them her money. Well, the other Friday night my wife and I were talking about an orphanage in Honduras that has some needs. We were trying to narrow down how many of the needs we could help with when our 8 year old asked if the people there are poor. We explained that they are poor and she promptly declared that she wanted to give them all the money in her piggy bank, except the dollars she has gotten from losing teeth because she wants to keep track of how many teeth she loses…but when she’s done losing teeth she will give that money too. Well, she and her 4 year old sister pooled their piggy bank change and came up with $15 dollars. She is excited to give the money and never wavered in her decision.
The ironic thing is that my wife and I wrote the single largest donation check we have every written but in Jesus eyes our daughter has given more because she has given nearly everything she has. I praise God that he has given us a heart to share and that we have the opportunity to influence our children’s hearts for the poor.
As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. "I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on." ~ Luke 21:1-4