A large focus in our family over the past year and a half has been on learning to live more sacrificially and give more generously. I say LEARNING because we are certainly not there yet and have such a LONG way to go. This does not just involve our finances, but that is obviously a big part of it. When it comes to money, I have never been a very generous person, so it has been a long road for me. Although we have always given "our 10%," for me, in the past it has always been because that's what I feel we should do and I did it out of obligation- not because I was doing so cheerfully and because it brought me joy to serve God in that way. I would never have dreamed of going above and beyond what I felt was necessary just for the joy of giving. Jay is far more generous with money than I am though, and I have slowly learned to be more so. I have started to learn that it really does bring joy to give money away. Really. That is especially true when we can see the direct impact of giving on a personal level, outside of just the monthly check to our church.
Another reason for the gradual shift in my attitude is because I have become increasingly aware of how much excess we live with. Yes, there are MANY times when I love our excess, and when I am so selfish and want so many things that I absolutely don't need. But, becoming more aware of what the majority of the world lives without, and seeing it firsthand, makes it far more difficult to justify gratifying my selfish desires when so many others are living without basic necessities. I am learning that we have been blessed in order to bless others, not so that we can hoard the blessings for ourselves.
So, in keeping with our family theme of learning to give sacrificially, last year during the advent season, we wanted to make an effort to try to reject the typical consumeristic mentality of the Christmas season, and to actually make the focus of Christmas be Christ and His birth and how He gave so sacrificially for us. We, along with other friends, decided that one way that we would attempt to do this would be to eat rice and beans for dinner every night from the day after Thanksgiving up until Christmas Eve. We would then take the money that we had saved by eating only rice and beans and give it away. It was a way for us to sacrifice something in order to have the ability to give more than what we would ordinarily give. It was also a great way to allow Jake and Addi to be directly involved in the giving...and the sacrificing. They were as much a part of it as we were, and some great things and wonderful lessons came out of it. It really helped us to be able to teach them to take the focus off of themselves and what they wanted to get for Christmas, and instead put the focus on Christ and what we could give Him. One verse that we really tried to focus on was Matthew 25:40, "The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me."
So...we are gearing up to do it again this season - another advent season of rice and beans. Now the question is...Does anybody want to join us??!!
hmm, only if there is a way that L & R will stand out of nose distance from me for a month. Those beans just didn't settle well with them. I always wonder what their Sunday school teachers think or if they figured out that those two quiet innocent looking children are the ones with the silent but deadly bombs.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great post. I might have to think of some other way to join in.
Tell me more about your rice and beans! I have been trying to figure out what to give Jesus for quite a while now. We had a manger, but I think the termites ate it in the backyard... We never had Santa and never a tree either. Like you said, distractions from the meaning of the HOLY-day.
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