Teach Your Kids to Give Using the Once-a-Month Strategy (May)

“If our church body disappeared instantly, would our community notice?” 

The pastor’s question caught in my throat.

He continued, “As a church, do we pay attention to God’s calling of giving and serving those in the community around us?  Does our church reflect God’s love and provision in our community?  Do we just talk the talk or do we actually walk the walk?”

That man spoke right to our family because this is what we’ve been working on. (Read about the start of our once-a-month giving journey here.)  So in May, when a local organization called on our church to help meet the needs of foster kids aging out the system, my heart stirred. We need to purchase household items for these young adults as they transition to independent living. (When the state pulls back on their support – we need to step up.)

Even though I knew we needed to participate, I didn’t want to. 

Here’s why.

We bought an older home we’re slowly renovating. The bathrooms have always needed to be gutted and redone, but because it is an expensive project we put it on hold. This month our upstairs shower laughed maliciously, then leaked into our downstairs bathroom. (Thank you very much for interrupting our budget and lives and forcing us to start the remodel.) Ugh.  

But, we’ve resolved in our mind no more excuses, giving is a priority (and posting holds us accountable because, in a strange way, I care what you all think), so we hit up Ikea.  I’m not going to worry if we’re giving enough, just do what we can do (evil upstairs shower still laughing), I repeatedly told myself as we shopped. 

I hope we’re teaching our kids to make giving a priority, even when it is inconvenient. 

Our family’s Once-a-Month Giving/Service Projects was featured on parenting.com. (This blog’s original name was Since I Became a Mom before it became Empowered Moms and Kids.)

Update:

The year is over and you can see what we did each month here…

Introduction 

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

If you decide to take use this giving strategy, remember this is YOUR THING. There are no “rules” to follow. 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.

 

Read what parenting.com says about the benefits of teaching kids to give:

“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 Kids, Money & Values, ‘when you help a child help others, you are helping to create a better world.'”  

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Favorite eye-opening books that nudged me to see the amazing part of God’s work that we can do daily. Exciting stuff we get to be a part of.

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Cheryl Donely

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.