Some years ago on a Sunday before Christmas our pastor at the time, Charles Carter, preached a sermon at Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills, about the urgent financial needs of Southern Baptist missionaries serving Christ in the world’s remote places.
His words deeply touched the tender heart of our 10-year-old daughter, Alyce. During Sunday lunch she made an unexpected suggestion — “Instead of buying Christmas gifts this year, let’s give all that money to the missionaries.”
We liked that idea and affirmed her sense of compassion and generosity. Instead of buying family gifts that Christmas we sent the money to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions.
It proved the best Christmas our family ever had and taught us lessons we have always remembered.
Numerous opportunities
While society, so caught up in a holiday spending frenzy, can often influence our children to become selfish and ungrateful and to care little about others, the Christmas season gives Christian parents and grandparents numerous opportunities to teach children to be compassionate, generous and grateful.
How? Here are some suggestions.
1. Model for your children compassion, generous giving and appreciation.
Children watch parents and grandparents as they themselves model these virtues. At 10, I watched my grandmother show compassion and generosity to a dirty, barefoot girl who came by her house selling worn dishrags.
Simple act of kindness
“How did you know exactly what I needed?” she asked the child.
My grandmother bought the dishrags, paying the asking price for each one. And then she gave the child a handful of extra coins.
“This money is just for you,” she said and smiled.
More than half a century later I still remember her simple act of kindness to this poor child.
2. Schedule regular family devotional times.
Read and discuss stories of biblical characters that practiced generous and selfless giving and compassion (see sidebar, below).
3. Talk about compassion, generosity and gratitude.
Give each family member the opportunity to respond to this question: “What are you most thankful for today?”
4. Pray together.
Thank God for His Son Jesus and His eternal gifts of love, grace, forgiveness and salvation through Christ. Thank God for everyday gifts that can often be taken for granted: extended family, good friends, a heated home, a comfortable bed, a handmade quilt, hot bath water, food, etc. Expressing gratitude will become a mindset and lifestyle for your children when they can learn to be thankful for all things both big and small.
5. Frequently list your family’s blessings.
Follow that with prayers of gratitude.
6. Ask God to provide opportunities to show His love to others during the Christmas season. Put feet to the prayers by donating clothes, food, money and toys to organizations that provide for the poor. Provide writing/art materials and encourage your children to make Christmas cards for loved ones.
7. Read the Christmas story together from Luke 2.
And when you do focus more on Christ and less on gifts.
8. Teach children to find joy in giving.
Provide supplies for them to craft simple gifts to give others. Offer your assistance and promote giving gifts of service instead of material gifts. For instance, encourage your child to:
- Write a note expressing thanks to a teacher.
- Play with or read a book to a younger sibling.
- Bake cookies to give to a friend or neighbor.
Pray for others
- Pray special prayers for those who are sick or lonely during the holidays.
- Volunteer at a soup kitchen, visit children in the hospital or visit an elderly person who is homebound and help him or her with simple chores.
- Make a special Christmas card to give your pastor, thanking him for lovingly shepherding you and your church congregation.
- Consider and pray for those who serve in the military and their families at home, children who have no family, the world’s hungry people, those without homes or financial resources for basic survival, etc.
Importance of gratitude
9. Teach children to show gratitude when receiving gifts.
Shakespeare’s King Lear described the child of every parent’s nightmare when he said, “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!” Raise up a grateful child with simple encouragements, such as:
- Teach your child to say “thank you” when he receives a gift.
- Encourage him or her to pen a hand-written thank you note to the gift giver.
- Role play a gift-receiving situation and teach your children how to accept gifts graciously. Give different roles to family members and act out appreciative ways to receive a gift, compliment or kind service from another.
10. Spend time with your children this holiday season.
- Find unique and fun ways to celebrate Christ’s birth. My children enjoyed making stick puppets and acting out the nativity scene, putting up simple Christmas decorations, playing games and singing carols as a family.
- Plan special occasions to share activities and events your children will long remember. Visit your local library and select good Christmas books and movies to read and watch as a family. Get together with friends, go out to dinner, attend a Christmas play, take part in special church and community functions, etc.
- Teach them the difference between temporary gifts and eternal gifts. For example, children will outgrow a new doll or fashionable clothes but they will long remember and be blessed by the loving times a parent or grandparent spends with them taking a walk, reading a book, telling a story, making meals, etc.
In these simple ways during this Christmas season, we can teach children the art of genuine appreciation, generosity and compassion that will follow them throughout their lives.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Denise George is author of 30 books, including the true Christmas story, “Johnny Cornflakes: A Story About Loving the Unloved.” She is married to Timothy George, founding dean of Beeson Divinity School, Samford University.
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Stories from Scripture that teach compassion, generosity and gratitude
Matthew 2
Wise men bring gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus, paying homage to the newborn King of the Jews.
Matthew 14 and Mark 8
Jesus feeds thousands of hungry people with five loaves of bread and two fish.
Mark 12
A poor widow puts two small coins — everything she had — into the offering box.
Luke 1
Elizabeth welcomes Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, into her home for three months.
Luke 5
Friends carry a paraplegic on a stretcher to Jesus.
Luke 7 and John 12
A woman anoints Jesus’ feet with perfume and tears.
Luke 10
A good Samaritan helps a wounded man on the road.
Luke 1
Mary and Martha welcome Jesus into their home and feed Him.
John 13
Jesus washes His disciples’ dirty feet.
Acts 9
Tabitha helps others by sewing clothing for the needy.
Acts 28
Paul is welcomed on the island of Malta after his shipwreck.
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