Raise Big-Hearted Kids Using the Easy Once-a-Month Strategy (February)
(Inside: Raise big-hearted Kids using the once-a-month strategy. Here’s one simple way to raise big-hearted kids.)
Every time I walk into my job, teaching at a large public high school, I’m met with Gandhi’s words hanging on the wall.
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
As a family, that is what we are working on – but, we are more specifically trying to be the change that we want to see in ourselves.
We are striving to better follow Jesus’ calling of sharing God’s love with others through giving and serving more. We’re on what we’re calling a “Once a Month” journey. We’re trying to better pay attention to the needs around us and monthly, take action and try and serve our community and the world in a tangible way.
Last month, in our quest to raise big-hearted kids, I blogged about how much we loved working at Feed My Starving Children. This month, we had an opportunity to work with this organization again and just had to take it.
Our boys participated with the over 835 volunteers from our church that joined other churches and raised at least $15,000 and packed 3,009,312 meals that were shipped to Nicaragua and Liberia.
This time my husband took the older boys and I stayed home with our youngest son. When they came home, I asked my boys how it was. My middle son shrugged and said, “normal.”
Raise big-hearted kids. Read more about our once-a-month giving strategy.
“The benefits of actively fostering children’s charitable impulses are enormous. Besides helping counter the overdeveloped ‘gimme’ impulse, it gives kids a powerful boost in self-esteem to realize they can make a difference in someone’s life. ‘And as corny as it sounds,’ says Patricia Schiff Estess, a New York City writer and the author of (Amazon affiliate link) Kids, Money & Values, ‘when you help a child help others, you are helping to create a better world.'”
That lesson floating around our home for a year? Yes, please.
So, we started what we’re calling the “Once a Month” strategy. Each month, we looked for a way to give, and very often, it involves just noticing what’s already in front of us. (Convenient!)
Here’s how the once-a-month giving strategy rolled out:
One reminder:
If you decide to take use this giving strategy, remember this is YOUR THING. Do what God places on YOUR HEART. Whatever works, big or little. Your family will be moved by however you decide to extend your hand. And hopefully, so will the people you give to.
Join this community of moms raising big kids.
Your brain bounces between your day at work, what time(s) your kids need to be at practice, your teen’s missing school assignments, that you haven’t called your mom lately, the load of the laundry to be switched, “What’s for dinner?” and “Why are 3 of my brain-tabs frozen?”
You are raising tweens and teens and college-age kids – the unique parenting phase where everything gets easier…and harder.
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Cheryl is a mom of 3 boys, wife, speaker, high school teacher, and author of Empowered Moms & Kids. She has a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and is passionate about learning and teaching. On www.empoweredmomsandkids.com you’ll find inspiration and encouragement for moms raising tweens and/or teens. Read more in the “about” section of this page.
