Lesson on Giving

For family night last night, we had a lesson from the Friend magazine that told the story of a family who donated money for tsunami relief. We got to talking after reading the story about money and service that we do in our church. We discussed tithing, the fact that we give 10% of our income to the church, and more importantly, the idea of fast offerings that we contribute each month. We talked about how fast offerings are used to help the poor and needy in our area, to help them with food and shelter and necessities of life. Justin connected this in his mind to his 2nd grade food drive that started this week. So we decided to go make a quick trip to Bag N Save and let him help think about what foods would be needed for a Thanksgiving dinner, and we would donate them to the food drive. It was really fun to watch the wheels turn in his mind, in thinking up what would be needed for such a dinner as we wandered the grocery store. We explained that donating to a food drive shouldn't be about going through the cupboards and pulling out all the canned vegetables that he doesn't like, and donate those. So I think he enjoyed thinking about things he WOULD like to eat, and purchasing those. At the end of our trip we showed him the receipt, explaining that food costs a good deal of money. On some level I think he understood this. He's excited to bring all of his good finds to school today to donate. I think it was an important lesson learned.