Tired of presents?

When your kids get tired of presents, and you get tired of stuff. giving to a worthy cause is an option. This came from my Lollypop Farm e news:

"While you must be 18 years old to volunteer at Lollypop Farm, many younger children still want to help the animals they care so much about. One way many kids and their families have been able to benefit the animals at Lollypop Farm, is to ask for donations of cash or items from our wish list in lieu of presents at birthday parties. ***** recently told us about her daughter's party:

My daughter, ***, is a first grader at ******. She turned seven on Friday, ***, and had a party for 18 of her friends at ***** at *****Mall. *** loves horses and asked that, instead of gifts, her friends make a small donation to the horse rescue at Lollypop Farm. The girls raised $300! I'm really proud of my daughter and her very generous friends. In the party photo, *** is in the front row, fourth from left (holding the horse!)."

At Lollypop we have a wish list for people who don't want to or can't give money. When items go on sale or if they have extra around the house people bring donations and put them in the Lobby in the red wagons.

But getting back to kids one young man (8 years old, I believe) put up a website with his mothers help. I think in the beginning the givers were people they knew but in the end more people gave and I think his final count was $600.It was a school Make-A-Difference project idea, I think.

Not only is giving important for character development and beneficial to the recipient, the other thing this kind of activity does is grow a "can do" attitude in kids. You can do something like this as a family, with friends, in church, at school. You can give individually, locally, to an organization you believe in, to a family, or to something missional, community or church sponsored. It's just a very neat thing when children give to something bigger than themselves and think beyond their own needs and wants!

Just realize that this kind of giving (group giving, social giving) doesn't take the place of making sacrifices or giving when nobody sees - NOBODY (except God of course). If you can teach your kids that, That's the gold.Not sure if making a child give sacrificially is the same as encouraging them to do what they know they have to do. Not sure if I'm saying what I mean.

...what do you think?