Someone, somewhere once said, “Children are the future.” Well, if no one did, they should have. It’s true. As much as we want to live forever, it’s important for us to teach the next generation the beauty of Becoming Last. I think a lot of times we want our children to have certain qualities, but we just kind of hope they turn out for good. As parents, grandparents, and friends we should be more intentional in instilling values in our kids. With that in mind, here are three ways to begin teaching your kids about loving others.
- Giving – My family has been taking a financial management course and this past week I was encouraged by the section dealing with children. It promoted the idea of teaching kids financial responsibility at an early age by letting them do some of their chores for money. Then, having them save some, give some away, and spend some if they want. I love the idea of at least teaching your children to be generous with their money. Of course, parents have to model it, but imagine the consequences if we raised up a generation of kids who would give lavishly to those in need! Consider sponsoring a child through Compassion or World Vision. That’s such an easy, practical way to tangibly demonstrate why giving and serving are important.
- Kids Are Heroes – Discover places such as kidsareheroes.com. This website (and others like it) have inspiring stories from other kids and they give ideas for projects your child or family can do together.
- Serve Together – Words are cheap. A local pastor quoted this the other day and it applies here:
“Service and selflessness are just words on a page without a rigorous methodology for constantly reinforcing these principles.” A Turak
My wife would be the first to tell you I have all sorts of brilliant ideas and theories, but many of them don’t ever get put into action. I can tell my son all about how Jesus loves everyone or how we should Become Last, but unless I model that and give us opportunities to serve together then all the talk and theorizing is in vain.
Search on the internet for ways to serve in your community. My community is have a litter pick-up day soon. That’s a great opportunity for a grade-school child. Maybe do a food drive together. Or run a lemonade stand as you raise money for a charity. One of these days I’ll post a list of ways you and your families can begin loving others so look for that soon.
Have a great Wednesday and I hope you’ll think of some way you can Become Last this week.
Becoming Last 
Matt,
Great post and great blog.
I think you’ve touched on some great points here about learning the responsibility of money, sharing their stories and actually implementing some of these principles we talk about so often.
keep up the good work
Thanks for visiting. I clicked over to yours as well. Good stuff. Hope to see you back sometime!