For the past couple of Christmases, I've grown exceedingly weary of the consumerism of our culture. Yes, I love buying gifts for people, but at the same time, it can be stressful, worrying if they'll like it, getting through the stores, wondering why we are so focused on gift-giving at a time of year when we, as Christians, should just be focused on Jesus and the amazing thing God did by sending his son as a tiny baby. Colin and I are seriously considering skipping major gift-giving next year and donating our money to a place like World Vision and "purchasing" something from their Christmas catalogue for a family in need.
So, amidst our musings, we decided we need to instill an attitude of giving and generosity in Ethan, instead of the typical "what am I gonna GET for Christmas" attitude. So far, he's young enough to not really be thinking in those terms yet, which is good. When we got home from our trip, we told him he needed to make room for his new toys. And partly, this is because we live in such a tiny house, but mainly to encourage this new attitude. In order to make room, we needed to go through his old toys and pick some out to fill a large-ish shopping bag and then we would give these toys to a child who doesn't really have any. Much to our delight, Ethan happily started depositing toys into the bag. He was so proud to fill it up and kept talking about giving it to someone who doesn't have any.
I got on the phone over the course of last week and grew increasingly discouraged as women's shelters, low income housing places, etc, kept turning me down. How was I going to tell my son that his toys weren't "good enough"? Talk about frustrating. Then, I was watching the news and saw a story about a young family with a 2 year old daughter who lost everything in a house fire. I was able to contact someone, who put me in touch with this family and we were able to donate the toys to them. I've never encountered such grateful people and it was a very humbling experience. And Ethan is so pleased that a little girl named Paige is now enjoying his toys, as she didn't have any anymore.
I hope and pray these kinds of experiences are what stands out for Ethan, that Christmas is fun, but the more important thing is that we have so much "stuff" that we can easily share it with others who don't have enough. The most important thing is that we have what we need and it all comes from God. And anything extra is worth sharing or giving away. I hope this year was the start of many more and bigger acts of generosity on the part of our son and us. We're so very proud of him.
3 comments:
Krista~ Hey it's rhonda (grdale) from BM! I think what you did with Ethan is wonderful! We do the same with Grant as well..whenever he gets new toys we make him give some away to those less fortunate. We have a great rescue mission around us that we donate to so we know someone in our county will get them!
I LOVE seeing Grant so excited about sharing with someone less fortunate. What a great feeling it is!!
Hi Krista, I'm Brandy on your winter due dates board. I just wanted to say that I totally know what you are saying in this blog. I've thought about it myself many times this time of year. One thing I heard another family did, and I thought this was really unique, was they gave each of thier kids 3 presents for Christmas. They said they only do 3 to symbolize the 3 presents that were brought to Jesus at his birth. I think that's an excellent way not to get caught of in the materialism of the holiday and an awesome way to help us remember what the day is really about and why we're celebrating it. I just was looking at Silas's birth pictures and read this and wanted to share this with you.
Hi Krista!! It's Terri from CDN Moms. I love what you did with Ethan & his toys. And the timing was perfect that you were able to help out that family! I started doing something similar with Tyler this year with his toys & we are also going to start volunteering in a few weeks to further teach him the meaning of "giving". I think it's so important that we instill these values & ideas in our little ones!! Great job Krista!!
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