Weekend Kindness » Giving Jesus Your Best

Giving Jesus Your Best

Posted Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 and visited 557 times, 5 so far today
by MInTheGap

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bashful

Back in May when we visited the Creation Museum, we picked up at their bookstore a book on teaching children how to handle money. As we read through it, we were told that we should use multiple jars to keep track of what we needed to give, spend and save.

So we did that.

But it was convicting, encouraging and it caused us to think more about what we give and why.

Why Do I Have To Give?

It’s taken some time for my kids to wrap their heads around why, when they earn a dollar, they don’t get the whole dollar. Though they’ve enjoyed giving my money in church, this is the first time that they’ve connected the work that they have done with the money that they’ve made with giving.

Well, almost.

I’m not sure that they get it totally, but they are really wanting this light saber that they saw at the store, and it’s teaching them patience (I think?) that they have to wait until they’ve earned the money.

A Lesson for the Parents

I’m one who gives regularly to church, and have done so for most of my life. The only times that I haven’t done it regularly was when I lost my job last fall and received a severance package—but I did make it up—and just this past May when I lost my job—which I just made up this Sunday.

I’ve tried to keep in focus the idea that God wanted the first fruits, and He wanted them willingly. He wanted it before it was spent, before it got something else attached to it. It was for God.

God Deserves Our Best

I think that all too often the position that God gets is the leftovers. While I’m fully behind the concept that family should come before church or social obligations, sometimes we stuff a lot into “family” and leave nothing for God’s work.

It’s true that our family is our primary mission field, and we’ll be accountable for the way that we bring them up. But if we’re not modeling service to the church—if we have time for every sporting activity, family vacation, and music lessons we can think of but we don’t have time to teach a Sunday School class, show up for a church workday, or show up to a prayer meeting/Bible study, what are we teaching our kids about priorities.

It reminds me of a story I read on a friend’s blog recently. There was a single, young mom that needed some shoes for her baby boy. After looking around for someone to donate something second hand, her husband said “[W]hy are you looking for old stuff? Just buy her something new,” and that reminded her that God wants our best.

Sometimes I think that we’re willing to give God the cast-offs of our things and our time, but if we truly want to be people of God, He should be getting “firsts”.

MInTheGap has been commenting on the culture at large and current events since 2004. He enjoys spending time with his family, writing, and being active in his local church.
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