A Lesson From A Child

As always, the Lord has taught us an incredibly valuable lesson through our daughter Catelyn. Since we have been thinking on the lines of purging our items for our overseas move, Megan noticed Catelyn's piggie bank and thought it would be a good idea to see if Catelyn would like to spend the money that she has been saving ever since she discovered this little phenomenon. Essentially, this is her life savings. Beings the U.S. currency doesn't work in Indonesia, it seemed like a good opportunity to see what she would like to do with it. When asked how she would like to spend her $50, Catelyn quickly replied that she wanted to give it away to people who don't have anything. A remarkable reply!! Of course we were at that moment the most proud parents in the world. Her decision definitely caused Megan and I to ask ourselves, "has Catelyn ever used any money to buy something for herself?" To our surprise, the answer was no. When Catelyn comes across money, she has two options. One is to put it in her piggie bank which we explained is a way to save money to buy something she may want in the future. The other is to put it into an envelope that we made for her called the Matthew 25 account. We wrote on the envelope Matt 25:40 "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me." Once a certain amount of money is saved up in the envelope, we give her a list of options on how she can use it to help people. Typically she'll buy chickens for families who lack food, which provides them eggs to eat and sell for an income. Ever since we created this envelope, she has ceased to put any money in her piggie bank. Her desire is to use what she has to help kids who don't have food, water, homes or mommies or daddies. The lesson learned is this. Everytime, we see her respond in such generous and compassionate ways, we can't help but want to bless her. Often times, selfishness creeps in and our desire is to spend our resources on our own wants and desires and not that of our Father's. All the while, if we would just love our neighbor as ourselves, God would bless us. After all, Jesus did say that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Catelyn has no concern whatsoever about whether she will be taken care of by her parents. She knows she will. This confidence of hers excels her generosity, now to the point of giving away all the money that she was saving so she could buy something for herself. If her confidence in us spurs her on in this way, what then ought our confidence in the Creator of all things spur us on to do? Jesus said that if us as parents (who are evil sinners) know how to give good gifts, how much more then our heavenly Father? What an example our daughter is to us. Even though we are constantly teaching her we can't help but become her students at times. Oh to be like a child.