One of the main goals with my husband and I is working on always trying to provide lessons to our kids to teach them the importance of giving to others. Some are small things we demonstrate for them, others are bigger.
The holidays provide a lot of opportunity to visually demonstrate the idea of giving. A few years ago (while they were in preschool), the church for the school would have boxes to adopt a child. You would add in some items that fit in a shoebox, bring it to the church, and the church would include it in their annual give. I can’t recall if every year the items were for local families or not, but it was a great way to help the kids understand that this season is also to think about others.
Last year we started a new tradition. Jon would take the big kids to Walmart, and each kid could pick an item out for the donation to our local fire department. It’s a real internal struggle (especially for Luke) to see all the toys and really try to the keep the focus on the kid they’re buying for. But they do manage. This year Aubrey went with Jon to drop it off and the chief was there and invited her in to sit in a fire truck. Day.Made.
As they get older, there will be more opportunities to have them be more involved with this philosophy. Jon dreams of taking them on a missions trip with our church. So can you teach how to have a giving heart? Not 100% sure. But I do know that with the kids I see them showing their thoughts of others. For Ryan’s birthday the kids wanted to win a toy and we paid for it out of their own money, but then Luke also spent more money to buy something for Ryan too. When I took Aubrey & Ryan for their annual doctor appointments, Aubrey offered to buy Ryan his very own little tsum tsum penguin. These moments show that they are picking up what we’re laying down.
Giving – With a Business Mindset
So I want to always make sure I keep this same mentality in my business. Each month I give back to our church with a portion of my commissions. I have goals of working harder, growing my business, and really doing a lot for single moms. I do extra stuff here and there to let those that I know (or, find out from friends) know that they’re doing a great job raising their kids, despite the hard moments they deal with all the time. This year, very last minute, I decided I wanted to do something for local kids in our area.
I held a buddy drive for customers, friends & family to adopt one of our adorable Scentsy Buddies and I would order all of them and donate to a local organization that would provide them directly to the kids for the holidays. I’m also a big proponent of act first, figure it out later. So initially I didn’t actually have an organization. I told everyone that was adopting a buddy that I would be figuring it out but just wanted to meet my goal of having 20 buddies adopted. I shared with my team as well and a few other local teammates also did their own and we put our buddies together and I found an organization to bring the Scentsy Buddies to.
Aubrey and Luke helped me bring in 3 big boxes containing 35 buddies to donate to the Family Promise of SCV. The event they held had 528 people – 118 families, 181 adults and 347 kids. So amazing. Leading up to the event, they featured many of the organizations that brought in donations and they shared photos throughout the event on their facebook page. It was so exciting to bring those boxes in! And now that I’ve found a local organization that directly impacts families in need in SCV, we can pay attention to their needs throughout the entire year! (Click here to like Family Promise of SCV on Facebook to follow along).
What traditions have you started with your kids? Share with me on Facebook!