Enter the Fritzes. The Fritzes are friends of ours who are great at getting their family focused on a singular cause. They regularly have fundraisers and raise money for causes that parents and kids can all get excited about. It began with two five-year-olds who wanted to raise money to help people in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010. It is a remarkable story (read about it here), and I have often wondered how we could be more like the Fritzes (aside from ordering WWFD bracelets as a reminder).
This season we got a message from a friend of ours who lives in Rwanda and works for Azizi Life, an organization that works with Rwandan artisans to help sell products at a fair wage. They are beginning bee keeping endeavors, and our kids got excited about it. Really excited. As we told them about people who were wanting to be bee keepers as a way to provide for their families, we decided that we wanted to help. So we came up with the idea to give a Christmas present to Jesus. Here's what we're doing. We decided to look for ways to make extra money, and that money would go into a bag that hangs up by our stockings. At the end of the Christmas season, whatever is in the bag will be our gift that will go to help Azizi Life bee keepers begin their work.
Here's what I didn't expect. Our kids went nuts. First they went to their piggy banks. I thought that maybe they would pull out some of their money, but they emptied their piggy banks and put everything in the bag. Then they started looking for things to sell. The neighbors were having a garage sale, so all three kids went through their toys, loaded up a wagon, and went to latch on to the neighbor's garage sale. On top of that, Big E, my seven year old, decided that she would make and sell fresh squeezed lemonade at the garage sale (all of this with permission from our neighbors; I don't want to get excommunicated from the neighborhood). Then they started looking for other ways to make money. The entrepreneurial spirit really took over. I've been listing and selling things on Craigslist for them, and every time something sells, they excitedly take the cash and put it in the bag. I have no idea how much money is in the bag, but I am so excited for the joy in giving that I see growing in my kids.
I grew up watching my parents' generosity, specifically my dad's. I don't think that I have ever gone over to my parents' house when my dad has not offered me something to take home. And he is like this with everybody. I'm amazed that my parents have anything left in their house with how generous my dad is, and my kids are seeing this and doing the same. What this means during Christmas is that our kids' excitement comes in the form of wanting to see others open up their presents, instead of getting excited about what they're getting. They do not have lists of things that they want for Christmas; in fact, when a family member asks what one of my kids is hoping for for Christmas, I usually have no idea, since we usually just talk about what we're getting for other people.
So when I expected that my kids would do some extra chores to make a few dollars for a charity, what I saw was them modeling generosity. What they taught me was that we should look at everything that we have and be willing to give some things away to help those who could use it. I don't expect that this is the last Christmas that we will have a cause to give to. But I do expect that I will continually learn about generosity from my family as they remind me of ways that we can help others.
No comments:
Post a Comment