One of the most requested topics this year on my speaking circuit has been a lesson in which I list a hundred ideas for training our kids to be servants. Service oriented kids grow up to be productive adult servants in the kingdom and it’s those people to whom the Lord will say, “Come ye blessed of my Father,” according to Matthew 25. So it matters if I’m making a real effort, as a mom, to put the heart of a servant in my child. For this reason, I’ve decided to devote a post, every now and then, to a service suggestion—a simple idea for moms to make their homes busy service centers for young hearts and hands. I’d love to hear from those of you who try them. So here goes:
Piggy Banks and Missionaries
I well remember a Sunday morning when I was a child and a missionary from a foreign country visited our morning service. My parents were members of a very mission-minded congregation and our elders had a policy of helping every single one who came to make a petition as long as they were teaching the truth from the Word. Of course, they could not give large amounts to them all, but they generally let these good men petition the congregation for individual contributions. My dad, as I recall, would always write a check for whatever amount he thought our family could give and then we children were encouraged to give from our piggy banks, as well. On this particular Sunday, I had fifty-two cents and I gave it to the mission fund. That night the total amount collected for that work was posted on the board at the front of the auditorium. It was something like $1047.52. I smiled inside when I saw that board, because my fifty-two cents was so obviously posted in that amount. To me, as a little girl, that fifty-two cents looked just as important up on that board as the whole big amount written in front of it. I actually felt like I had a part in that work in a faraway and, to me, mysterious place.
I wanted my kids to feel a part of mission works, too, so Glenn and I made a point, even when we were not involved with churches in which missionaries made personal appeals to the members, to be sure that our kids knew missionaries personally and that they gave from their little banks to “support” them. It’s not hard to find out about missionaries who are doing good works in foreign places. If you have trouble finding them, ask your elders or facebook me or Email me and I will help you. Then, during your family Bible time, show your children pictures or read to them about a particular work. Talk about the mission family by name and ask your children if they would like to give some money so the missionary can buy some Bibles or build a building or, maybe, purchase a motorcycle for his preaching travels. Pray about this mission work and pray that your money will find its way through the postal system and that the family will be able to use it to help somebody know how to go to heaven.
Then, of course, you moms can convert your children’s money, along with whatever you add, to a personal check and put it in the mail to the mission work. Be sure to let the missionary know that your children contributed personally so that perhaps your children may hear back from him. Even if they never do, you can generally keep up with the mission work in newsletters or online and let your children know how it is going.
Be sure NOT to do this if you do not want your children to grow up to be evangelistic and mission-minded, because kids who do this are probably a thousand percent more likely to do so than those who are not investing in mission work. That fifty-two cents didn’t go very far in that foreign work, but it made a big difference in the heart of a little girl…and, later on, in the hearts of her little girl and little boy, as well (all of whom have been blessed to be on foreign soil doing the greatest work on the planet.) God is good.
PS. I love getting messages about tender hearts! Here’s one from this morning:
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I shared your k.i.s.s .Number 8 with my Girl to Girl teenage class two weeks ago, and that very morning they went out and helped several members by folding their walkers, helping them to the car, etc. These are not just great for Mama, but are great to share with the kids, too. Thanks Cindy!!!!9 minutes ago ·
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Cindy Colley Yay for a “Girl to Girl” class and Yay for tender hearts! You are doing an eternally important thing!
