Seeking the Lord for Help to Teach Generosity

 

“You’ve got chips!  No fair!” ” You got coloring pages!  No fair!” “You got icecream!  No fair!”  The pout face is on, and arms are crossed.  The sense of injustice boils over to anger.  Then complaining ensues in an effort to make sure that everyone is aware of the wrong that has been done.  Complaining is the seed of ingratitude.  It is an indictment against God that He has allowed us to be wronged or that He Himself is outright guilty of mistreating us.  We demand that He do something about it.  All of this begins in the heart of a child.

As we seek the God to enable us to instill generosity in our children, it is important to be aware that this accusation of God is part of our humanity and must be dealt with before we can truly understand generosity (Gen. 3).  Accusation is not compatible with generosity.  In order to be generous we must confess our accusations and accept Jesus’ generosity toward us.  He gave all of Himself for our sake, dying in a horrifying way (Rom. 5:8) so that we could receive all the blessings of heaven both now and for the rest of eternity.

Our children need to know that their complaints get in the way of giving thanks or anything else for that matter.  WE can help them overcome this obstacle by pointing them to Jesus’ generosity.  Forgiveness is readily available to us (1John 1:9).

What we think deserves an indictment is actually short-sightedness.  We are not able to see the big picture that God is accomplishing (Gen. 45 is a great example of this!).  God’s plan is always for our good, so we have no reason to complain.  When we confess that we are guilty of making indictments against God, He frees to be generous.

Please join me this month as I seek the Lord for help to teach generosity.  Praise Him that He is faithful!