Generosity-caught not taught

In Luke 15:11-32, Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son.  In fall 2009, our church studied the book "The Prodigal God" by Tim Keller, which focused on this parable.  The title of the book was a little surprising to me until I read about another meaning of the word "prodigal," which means "to lavishly spend it all."  Wow.  Just like the father in the story, our Heavenly Father spent it all, lavishly, on us.

As you may have noticed, generosity is our monthly character trait that we are focusing on.  Each month I'll be sharing ideas of how to promote these character traits with our children.  Generosity is one of those that you just can't force.  You can force your kid to give someone else the toy, or the last cookie, but doesn't necessarily mean that he/she is being generous from the heart.  So how do you get there?

My father is probably the most generous person that I know.  Growing up, we certainly had our needs (and many wants) provided for- if my father could do it for us, he did it.  But I don't think (easy for me to say!) that we were spoiled.  Somehow, the nature of generosity got passed to us.  Not only was he generous with us, but he was generous with many others.  We opened our home to some young people who needed a place to stay- one girl ended up living with us for several years, a few different times, and my dad eventually walked her down the aisle at her wedding...in place of her birth father, who had not been a good one.  I know (although I think I wasn't supposed to know) that he paid for a whole bunch of dental work for someone, paid off someone else's school debt (they never knew who did it), took (and paid for) a friends' family on vacation, helped me and my husband out numerous times financially...and those are just the ones I know about.  He has always had a heart for the struggling kid...always hiring teens and college-age kids who need some money to come out and do yardwork.  And he always used those working times to help mentor them, and get them on the right path.  Although my dad had a good career, we were never wealthy (by US standards) so my dad didn't give out of his overabundance...but he gave what he had.  I don't know that I'm as generous as he, but I hope to be.  And I hope to pass that legacy of generosity onto my own children.  I truly believe that generosity is caught, not taught.

Generosity can look different ways, too....not only with money.  Time is a currency...in many ways more valuable even than money.  We could sacrifice time, convenience, comfort-level, or that last piece of chocolate cake, just to be generous.

Start with your own family.  Are you stingy with your time?  Don't be a Scrooge. :) Give your kids or your spouse some undivided attention.  Make that extra-special dinner that takes so much more work, but you know they love it.  My mother was particularly good at this kind of generosity.  She did so much for us that I never realized until I was much older.  I know sometimes when I've done something nice, or generous for someone (usually in my family) I feel the need to point it out to them.  But those things are usually best when done humbly and secretly.

God, the perfect parent, modeled perfect generosity as he sent Jesus to us.  Let's learn from His modeling, and share that generosity with our own kids.  Let's be generous with ALL our resources- they're really all His anyway.  We heard such amazing testimonies from the Outflow experiments of practical ways to share God's love...let's not stop now!  Keep being filled, and filling others.

How do you practice generosity?  Who has been generous with you?