Do your children have a hard time sharing something they really love?
Are they unwilling to offer help of any sort?
Who in their life would you describe as a generous person?
Are you generous as a parent?
How well do you teach your children the need to be generous?
Are people generous to them?
How do they feel about it?
How generous are you to people in your life?
Reflect on these
Examine your parental styles as they relate to generosity.
Set weekly ideas in place.
Have a goal and write down ways you can model and teach generosity.
Examine your progress in line with your child’s response towards it.
Be intentional about it.
Generosity is beyond money or monetary gift, which it is commonly known for. It is any act of kindness or show of compassion from family, friends, or even a stranger. Any deed done towards impacting a life is an act of generosity. It could be giving our talents, or our time or our resources to people that need them. It could be an act of volunteering, lending, encouraging, assisting, or any physical, psychological, or spiritual demonstration of help towards others.
In today’s society, would children and youths come to the aid of someone who is overburdened with load? Would they give up their seat for an elderly person? Would they knock on their lonely neighbours’ door to offer a hand with chores? Would they give a listening ear to someone in need? Would they offer a helping hand to their fellow children in school and at home to deliver a task? The honest response to these questions would show how most children and youths nowadays lack generosity. This generation has lost the instinct of generosity and kindness. Extending hands of friendship and willingness to help are limited by a fear of getting involved and a concern of offending someone. They are rather self-centered, ungrateful, materialistic, and entitled.
Generosity is fulfilling, and supporting its course is humanitarian. We all need to rediscover humanity in our families, schools, communities, and society. Solidarity and hospitality are good stewards of the earth. We need them to recreate a world where strangers are welcomed, the disposed are empowered, and the weak are supported. We need to let generosity of spirit lead us to a place where kindness and love embrace differences without fear, where equality is genuinely seen between people and where people act in the interest of generosity, not in the pursuit of greed. We must reclaim these values!
God is generous, more generous than any of us could ever be. He treats us generously and justly despite our shortcomings. His justice is ruled by generosity and compassion. His vision for humanity is for life to be easy for ordinary people, not for wealth to be concentrated in fewer hands. He requires us to act justly, love tenderly, walk humbly, and give generously.
We must act towards others as God acted towards us. Even though we can not afford the price of a luxurious life, we can afford the price of a generous life. Having a culture of giving, in whichever form or way it is directed, can bring communities together and foster love, unity, and peace in a country at large.
The future of children and youths largely depends on their ability to be more generous in order to connect with each other in exploring global opportunities. With that, they can reveal their potential to the world.
According to Steve Goodier, money is not the only commodity that is fun to give. We can give time, we can give our expertise, we can give our love, or simply give a smile. What does that cost? The point is, none of us can ever run out of something worthwhile to give.
BIBLE VERSE
Hebrews 13:16
And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased
PROVERBS
He who allows his day to pass by without practicing generosity and enjoying life’s pleasures is like a blacksmith’s bellows: he breathes but does not live. ~ Indian Proverb
RIDDLE
People want it, and when they have it, they use it by giving it. What is it?
Amara Ann Unachukwu
