A month ago as I was looking through the junk mail, I came across a Compassion booklet with gifts that could be bought overseas for families in need, as an alternative to buying physical gifts for family and friends.
Each year in October, we have a certain amount of money debited from our account that Compassion uses to buy Christmas gifts for our sponsor children.
In March of each year I receive a letter and a photo of my sponsor child Joseph in his new Christmas Day clothes holding or standing next to his Christmas present.
One year it was corrugated iron for building a house. The following year he was standing next to a goat that gave him and his family fresh milk. Six months later I received a distressed letter from Joseph telling me a car had run over his goat and it had been killed. That following Christmas, another goat was purchased to replace the one killed 6 months prior.
I loved receiving the photos and letters because I could see where my donated funds were going. Jacob never got photos of his child’s presents, just letters detailing what they received. He was often envious of my photos.
The sponsor child experience is a great eye opener to how the Compassion gifts work. I think it’s a great gift option for the person who has everything and doesn’t want anything.
It was while I was looking through that junk mail a month ago, Esther asked me what I was looking at and I showed her the Compassion booklet, explaining there were children around the world who didn’t get presents on Christmas Day.
Her little eyes opened wide and she asked me ‘Am I one of those children?’ to which I aptly responded that she wasn’t, but it was important to give gifts to those children that would miss out. Esther took the Compassion booklet from me and started to flip through it and she shook her head confused.
‘The kids overseas wouldn’t want any of these presents mummy.’ She grabbed the Big W catalogue and started pointing out toys like trampoline’s and jumping castles. ‘ The kids would definitely need this and this and this!’
I smiled at her reaction. She didn’t understand that the children overseas would LOVE a gift from the Compassion catalogue because it would be of great benefit to their family and community.
My girls love going through the junk mail to look at the toys and Esther is quite audible about what she would like for Christmas. While she thinks she knows what she wants, I know what will suit her and her sisters best when it comes to play time. I also know that she’s not fussy about what she will find underneath the Christmas tree – although when we saw Santa on Friday she told him she would like a yoyo for Christmas. Thankfully Jacob was able to find one yesterday to put in her stocking!
Teaching a child to be grateful with what they have is something all of us parents strive for, but how do you start and what do you do to make a child realise how blessed they are?
For me, I find it’s important to find the right opportunities to talk about poor people with Esther. We recently borrowed the movie Aladdin from a friend and there is a scene where Aladdin steals a loaf of bread and is about to eat it when he sees a boy and girl looking through the rubbish bin to find some food. I was able to explain to Esther that the children in the movie had nothing to eat and were poor and Aladdin had compassion to give them his bread. While discussing this may not make Esther feel grateful, it will help her understand that there are children who don’t have the luxury of going to a pantry full of food to make a selection for morning tea.
Esther has also started to take offering to church and she is learning that it’s good to donate 10% of what she receives in her bank account to others. I also get her to drop money into collection tins for the Anzacs or whatever charity is collecting at the time when we go shopping. Sometimes if I’m in a rush and shake my head no to the collector, Esther will pull me up and ask for some change to place in the tin. Teaching a child how to give is a great step in helping them understand how to be grateful as they understand more about how the world works around them.
Christmas time is always a great opportunity to teach gratefulness. There’s the Kmart Wishing Tree, Operation Christmas Child – and if you haven’t been able to put together a shoe box this year, why not donate $8 to cover the postage of the box? 1 in 8 boxes don’t have the donated funds needed to send the box overseas. There are also initiatives run by churches to assist with families in need at Christmas. Our church has a Stuff the Bus initiative where we bring non-perishable foods and gifts that are put in hampers for families doing it tough this Christmas.
I’d love to hear how you teach your children to be grateful and at what age did you start? Do you think generosity and gratefulness work hand in hand?
I’m linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT.
