Generous Giving
What is your favourite way of celebrating Christmas?
My favourite way to celebrate is the amazing feast with my family.
We also like going to carols in the park, looking at fairy lights, decorating the house with gorgeous decorations, doing lots of craft.
My kids would say their absolute favourite part are the presents.
Gifts are a huge part of Christmas.
Do you like giving or receiving the most?
QUICK QUESTIONS:
What is the best gift you have ever been given?
What is the best gift you have ever given anyone?
Who gave Jesus gifts when he was born?
Would you have been happy with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh?
In our family my kids don’t have a lot of money and so they give presents to their siblings on their birthdays or at Christmas from things that they already have. It could be a toy, or some food they’ve made or a voucher for them to give me a massage.
It is hard to give presents to people when you don’t have much money.
We can be generous with things other than our money.
I can be generous with my time, and I can spend it (spend!) doing all kinds of things - things for myself - watch TV - or things for other people (cook something special, do some chores, say something nice to someone or play the game that they want to play.
Bible Passage: 1 Kings 17:8-16
How was this woman generous to Elijah? She gave her last bit of food to him, even if that meant starving herself.
Sometimes it is really hard to give. I have bought presents for people that my kids have wanted to keep. It was really hard for them to give them away.
How hard would it be to give your last bit of food away! Imagine giving away all of your favourite toys. Would you do it?
Being generous is sometimes easy. It is easy if we have plenty and what we give is only a small amount.
Sharni has about 100 Beanie Boos. To give away one that she doesn’t really like is fairly easy for her. She has only 1x keyboard that she plays every day. This is much harder for her to give away.
Bible Passage: Mark 12:41-44
You don’t have to be rich or have a lot to be generous. Jesus is saying that it isn’t the amount that you give that is important. He is saying that anyone can be generous, even poor widows. And even kids.
Discussion Questions:
Do you find it hard or easy to give things away? Why/why not?
Think of something that you have that someone really loves. Do you think that you could give that away? Discuss your thoughts together.
