The Peter Fish's Visit

Our church just started its annual World Hunger Campaign. (For those of you in the CRC, this may sound a bit off since the official CRWRC campaign is usually in the fall. Because of our fall Life Group series and how it fit with planning, we decided to recognize World Hunger Day in the spring so it could have its own special focus. That was the worship director making her explanation for why we are doing what we are doing and when!) To kick it off today in worship, an adult invited all the children ages three years old to fifth grade to sit at the front of the church while he shared about the Peter Fish and CRWRC's (Christian Reformed World Relief Committee) work around the world. He encouraged each of us to read our daily devotional that goes with it and fill our Peter Fish which will be collected during worship in three weeks.

Today was the first time that Caleb willingly went up to the front with the other kids. He was not so sure at first but did follow Isaac up there. As we watched our kids look around and copy what the other kids were doing during the talk, we realized how little control we have over their actions when they are out of arms' reach. Fortunately, they both sat pretty well, raised their hands when they were supposed to (though they did not always put them down right away), did not hit the boy next to him (Isaac) who was lying on his shoulder but instead "gently" moved his shoulder out from under the other boy's head, and was one of the first ones to walk into the congregation to help hand out the fish to the adults whose hands were raised. (Caleb was a bit disappointed in this last part since he was not as quick and did not get to hand out any fish.) Impressively, they remembered a lot of what Mr. Steenstra said and were ready to fill their fish.

Speaking of, our boys are just slightly in love (and that is putting it mildly) with their Peter Fish! They fought over who got to hold it on the way home today. They fight over who gets to be the first one to put the money into the fish after reading the devotional for the day. And they are now fighting over doing chores so they can earn a little extra money to put into the bank (a penny per chore--reminds me of my childhood when Mom would pay us a penny for each pickle picked from the garden...). Now I just have to be creative in finding chores that they can actually do without too much of my help. (I mentioned they could help me wash the windows, and Isaac is gung-ho about getting that job done--even thought he should miss his rest time to get the windows done.)

This is day one of a three-week campaign. If we keep going at this rate of enthusiasm, our house will be gleaming! Ah, I love when the Peter Fish comes to visit our home!

Purchases

We are trying to teach the boys about money and managing it when they have it. Because of Christmas (and the extra money and gift cards that came as gifts) and now Valentine's Day, they have gotten lots of opportunities to practice spending their money--so that part of the lesson (how to spend it) seems to be mastered. I am not sure that they are learning how to save their money, though--especially when Isaac asks me each morning if we can go to the store that day to buy some stuff.

This week, though, they both made a couple purchases, and both of them are so proud of what they bought. Isaac purchased a stuffed animal snake while Caleb bought binoculars and some frog jacks when we were at the Safari Park. They also each found a Mario (from Super Mario Brothers and MarioKart) t-shirt at Kohl's that they had to buy. I am glad that they are happy with their new stuff--the pictures below are evidence of their joy showing off their new things. (Caleb even made me retake his pix since one of his guys was not showing clearly. If you look closely, you can see that he is holding the frogs, and his binoculars are hanging off his shoulder so his shirt did not get covered by them!)

And, yes, I know that the boys need haircuts. Another day and another post, I guess!

Giving back to God

We are trying to teach our boys that everything we have comes from God and that, as a result, we need to give back to him. We just started giving our boys an allowance each month to help them learn how to manage money (or at least start understanding a little more about money). They get $1 for each year of their life so Isaac gets $5 while Caleb gets $3.

When we did this the first time last month, we talked about how it is their paycheck just like Dad and Mom get paid each month and that it is their responsibility to do with it what they want. However, to teach them about tithing and saving, we added the following rule when they get paid: one always goes to God and one goes into saving; the rest is theirs to spend however they want. (We got this idea from some friends and from the whole "Love and Logic" parenting principle.)

It all sounds pretty basic and straightforward...to us adults. To a three year-old and five year-old it is not always as obvious. Below are two different conversations we have had with the boys who are obviously trying to still figure out the tithing part of it.

Isaac's perspective:
At first Isaac was not too excited about losing one dollar and actually said, "That's okay, I think I will just keep this one." (Yeah, we had a little talk about its being a gift from God in the first place and that we need to give back to God with joy...I am not sure that he was still totally convinced.) Our conversation continued, but he got a little hung up on actually giving it to God; he took us literally and thought God was going to be at church to collect his money. When we further explained that the deacons collect the money to help God and others, his next question was, "But how do they get it to him? Do they send it up to him?" (The image I got from his question was one of the deacons sticking our money in one of those bank tubes and shooting it up to heaven...maybe that is something like he was imagining. Who knows???)

Caleb's perspective:
Since our boys leave for children's worship midway through the service, the boys have not been in the sanctuary to put their offering in the plate. Today was the first Sunday this month when they were still with us for the offering and able to put it in the basket as it passed by. Rebecca, a good friend of ours and the boys' teacher for moms' group preschool, is a deacon and happened to be up to usher today and handed us the offering baskets. Today at lunch we were talking about giving our money to God since it is the beginning of the month again. Without missing a beat, Caleb asked, "Is Miss Rebecca Jesus?" (It took us a moment to put together what we said and the fact that he put the money in the basket she passed to us.)

To see our religious beliefs and the things we do because of our faith through a child's eyes is so amazing! I catch myself at a loss for words in trying to explain something that is such a part of my being. I am thankful that God uses our children to make me stop and really think about why I do things so I can not only explain it more clearly to them but also live my faith with meaning and not out of habit.