The Most Exciting
Holiday Gift:
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During the holiday season, your grandchildren’s thoughts naturally turn towards giving and receiving. Maybe not in that order. This season is the best opportunity on the calendar for you to help your grandchildren learn to put first things first. The lesson of charity may be one of your best gifts this year to the young people you love.
Acts of charity teach us the value of our own blessings. The ability to appreciate what we already have is priceless. Charity also exercises the heart muscle so that it is stronger, more adaptable and more inclined to bond closely with family and community members. By teaching our grandchildren about charity, we are giving them a lasting gift of happiness.
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Make
a Date to Donate Do they love toys? Giving one away through the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots will get them excited. Are they concerned about poverty, hunger and loneliness? Volunteering to serve a holiday dinner to the needy will fill their souls. (Contact local churches or community service groups, such as the Lions Club or the Legion.) Almost every street of your town is an avenue for giving. “The place God calls you to,” said Frederick Buechner, “is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s hunger meet.” |
If your town is small enough so that you know almost everyone and everything in it, then you’ll know what needs done locally. Your grandchildren may come up with a completely new idea, too. Youth enjoys inspiration.
If you are in a larger urban environment, try an Internet search for “your town + charities” (e.g. “Savannah charities”). You’ll be directed to a wealth of sites, most of which list how to volunteer and how to donate goods, services and money.
For more family volunteering ideas, see the project list at 1-800-volunteer.org. For example, the “Giggle Book” for a sick person and “The Morning Sleep-In” for a shelter resident are fun and relatively brief activities that may be organized on short notice.
A substantial bonus of exploring
your grandchildren’s ideas about their community will be a stronger bond
between you. This is a gift before any giving takes place.
Time or Money?
Time must be spent locally, while money may be spent internationally. Personal
presence enhances the feeling of contribution, while distance giving extends
your grandchild’s reach. Both are good options. Part of the decision rests
on how much activity you want to undertake. Whichever route you pursue, make
the event a celebration. The most important thing is that the joy of giving
be keenly felt and shared among you and your grandchildren.
If charitable giving is a new activity for your grandchildren, then to start, any money donated will most likely be yours. The pleasure of deciding where to spend it will be sufficient for the children for now.
Long-Term Lessons
For longer-term strategies on teaching children to donate, there is much helpful
advice online. Here are some good sites to get you started:
| “Tips
on Teaching Your Grandkids To Help Others” by Jack Jonathan “Teaching Our Children Philanthropy,” by Cam Kelly For ideas on how to evaluate a charity, see “How to Decide: Thoughts about Choosing Charities to Support” |
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A wonderful way to teach children anything is to make a game of it. The Charity Game is especially fun because its outcome affects the real world. Your Charity Game can have rules that reflect your own values. Even very young children quickly grasp and accept boundaries that are defined as rules of the game. For instance, you can score the children’s research and their passion. If you prefer anonymous donations, you can award more points for these. However you set up the game, you’ll communicate right away the valuable lesson that helping others is having fun. Throughout life, your grandchildren will remember the good times they had with you playing the Charity Game, and they’ll be motivated to continue the practice.
Modeling Giving – What Lies Behind the Gift
For any lesson you teach well, behind it must lay the sincerity of your beliefs
and actions. If you haven’t donated or volunteered much in the past, begin
now and learn in tandem with your grandchildren. They’ll enjoy this equality!
If you have a history of charitable works, share with your grandchildren episodes
that made you especially proud or happy. Such tales need to be liberally spiced
with emotions and events, not “I did this,” or, most horrifying
to young listeners, “When I was your age, I ...”
Modeling giving becomes even more powerful for grandparents with limited resources. Whatever you share to enrich the life of another acquires great meaning. Celebrate your gift, however small. Give it, however small. By doing so, you’ll protect your grandchildren from the debilitating notion that charity must wait until there’s more than enough.
Happy Holidays! May you give the
gift of love, and may you receive the gift of peace.
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