Giving & Generosity 10-Week Challenge The Magic of Giving
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
We have two wonderful kids, one boy and one girl, with great hearts. We have a son, Blake, who is very outgoing and creative. At about 10 years old, Blake took up magic as a hobby. He was pretty good at it. At his school’s hobby fair, Blake drew a crowd as he performed his magic.
One day, we were at a restaurant and, without warning or our pre-approval, Blake decided to ask the restaurant manager if he could do magic at the tables as people ate. The manager agreed to let Blake come into the restaurant for one night which turned into once a week. Blake was 11 years old at the time. And to his surprise, many of the patrons tipped him after he performed magic.
We had taught our children about tithing. We actually used an envelope system for them. One envelope was labeled “Tithe”. Another envelope was labeled “Spend”. Whenever they received their allowance, they would put 10% in the tithe envelope and the rest would go in the spend envelope. When Blake started “working”, we created a third envelope for him labeled “Save”. 10% of the money he made from tips would go into the save envelope. This was used as long term savings.After learning about the benevolence fund at church one weekend, Blake decided to create a fourth envelope labeled “Benevolence”. After Blake came home from the restaurant with the money he was given as tips (and free food the restaurant gave him) Blake would split his earnings up into the envelopes.
He took joy in contributing to the benevolence fund. We would like to take credit for Blake’s approach to giving, but we can’t. He felt a tug from God and decided to be obedient. It is great to see the faith of children at work. We pray that his heart will always be open to God’s call and that he will respond, without holding back.
- Jeff and Robbin
