As a child I remember looking at the department store catalogues at Christmas that had arrived in our mail box and pointing out all the toys and fun things I wanted. Do any of you remember that? I guess that is the “old school” version of scrolling online and clicking on items and adding them to your wish list. Thinking back, I realize how self-seeking that was. Christmas to me was about the hoped-for presents I would get. Our human nature is to want more, whether we are kids or adults. The world sells us everyday: Me, me…ME. More, more…MORE.
As parents we tried to combat the "me" and the "more". We tried to foster attitudes of thankfulness in our kids rather than letting them focus too much on the me and the more. And that isn’t something that magically happens at Christmas, it is something we have to work on all year long.
Looking back over our many years as missionaries in Japan there were a few things we did that seemed to help grow a heart of thankfulness in our kids. One thing was realizing that all we had was from God. This is something we talked about with our boys…like all the time. Granted as missionaries we naturally felt that all we had WAS from God. We were literally living on “income” that came from others; churches and financial partners, sent to us via our mission group. What others gave, we received.
As parents, we always talked about how all we had really came from God. And when we prayed together as a family nightly, we often prayed for God’s provision for our needed financial support when it was low and then thanked Him together for His provision when the needed funds came in.
But it wasn’t just about money, when we were in need of a car to borrow or an apartment to rent or a place to stay on a short home visit; we prayed. We prayed about new friends at a new school and friendly, receptive neighbors at the home we were moving into. We prayed for needed college tuition and stand-by seats on airplane flights. Our eyes were fixed on God to provide and our hearts bellowed in thankfulness when we saw Him provide, in little and big things, time and time again.
A small way we practically reminded our kids of this was when we went out to eat. Afterwards I would say, “Thank you daddy” helping the kids to chime in a thanks to dad for taking us out. He would wisely reply, “Thank you Jesus”. It became almost a rote, humorous joke as the kids new I would always say, “Thank you Daddy” and Daddy would always reply, “Thank you Jesus”. But underneath was a clear message that everything we had was given by God and our hearts should respond in thankfulness; even in the little things like a hamburger out to eat.
