It’s that time of year when our children, grandchildren, and neighbors head back to school. Daycare through college, we expect a lot of our youth. Things like mastering calculus, learning an instrument, making the varsity team, reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Lately, there has been a push in more schools to spend more time on life skills, such as time management, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. Saving money for retirement and learning to pay your taxes are undoubtedly beneficial skills to learn. But what about generosity, giving, and tithing?

Learning The Joy Of Giving

From an early age, we should instill in our children a heart to serve God and help those in need. If your children or grandchildren get money through allowance, chores, an after-school job, or in birthday cards from Aunt Helen, teach your children the gift of giving and the joy that it can give them for their entire lives.

On a personal note, when I was in high school I spent far too much of my money on CDs and DVDs. That spending clearly did not age well. I couldn’t even tell you where 90% of my discs are, or if I even own anything on which to play them. The money I gave to places like Circuit City and Sam Goody to purchase those discs clearly didn’t do much good for them. I sometimes think about the cumulative good that could’ve been done with that money if I had put that extra $20 in the offering plate instead.

I’ve heard of families teaching generosity by giving their children three jars: a save jar, a spend jar, and a God jar. And then whenever they get a paycheck or allowance or that birthday card from Aunt Helen, they can put most of it into their spend jar, but 10% into the save jar, and 10% into the God jar. Maybe you could come up with your own family practice. But the activity of setting aside money in their God jar and then taking it to worship may instill in them the love of giving to God. Loving to give is one of the best gifts we could ever give our children and grandchildren.

To this day, I can’t recall the atomic weight of Hydrogen, or how to determine the area of a isosceles trapezoid, but I can certainly tell you how much joy I receive from being a cheerful giver. Use back-to-school time to install that love in the young ones in your life.