I love traditions. For Mother's Day, my parents always visit and for lunch we go to a Japanese steakhouse. On my mom and Brad's birthdays, we eat dessert first. On Halloween we watch movies and eat Chipolte. (hm, I'm noticing a tradion of eating...or else I'm just munchy and these are the only ones I could think of :P) One of my favorite traditions though is doing Operation Christmas Child.
Anna and I started making a tradition of doing OCC when she was two. We do the age group that she is. The first year she enjoyed picking out things even though it was hard to not want to buy for herself. Last year she told me she did not want to participate. I must admit that I got angry that she didn't want to do this with me. I felt as though I was failing and that I was raising a selfish child. No matter how much I talked to her about giving to other people she refused to back down. Brad told me just to take her with me and not to make her participate, but for me to have fun with it. What do you know, once we started shopping she got on board. Every once in a while I would have to casually remind her that we were not shopping for her. This year my heart rejoiced that she was excited to do OCC. When we brought our boxes home she already wanted to start planning what we were going to get. She informed me that she was cutting out the stickers to put on the boxes. She had a fantastic time picking out treasures to place in the two boxes. (one for her and one for matthew) When we were in line to check out she turned to the lady in back of us and proudly told her that we were shopping for OCC. She couldn't wait to pack the boxes when we got home. Unfortunately she had to take a nap, but after a nap and snack she was ready to get on it. We do have a few more things to get for the boys box but we are good on the girls box.
I am very passionate about giving to others. Constantly I wish that I had more money that I knew what to do with so I could take care of everyone. This is another trait I picked up from my Grandma and my parents. I pray that I am able to install in Anna and Matthew a generous spirit. Anna already can be tender towards the needs of others. Her prayers touch my heart as she asks for people without homes to find a place to stay, for the starving children to be fed, for the sick people we know to be healed. I have to be careful in the stories I tell her. She does make me laugh....this summer we had talked about the children in Africa who were dying from starvation. Today she told me that the OCC box that we were doing wasn't going to go to Africa because all the little girls were dead. Oops...miscommunication there! I think the thing that I love most about shopping for OCC is that I get to do this together with Anna and that we have a blast! I look foward to years to come when Anna, Matthew and I are all able to find other ways to give to others.
2 Corinthians 9:7Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
No comments:
Post a Comment