If you’ve been around young children for any length of time, my guess is that you have noticed that they are pretty self-centered. It’s not necessarily their fault. During the preschool years it’s especially hard for them to see and understand much outside of their little world. People have served them and taken care of them their whole life. They want what they want, when they want it and they are not likely going to be willing to share much of what they have. They are too young to fully comprehend their sin nature and their need for a Savior. But I believe they are never too young to start talking to them about how much Jesus loves them. And that there are people all over the world that need to hear that good news about Jesus.

I believe we can start now – no matter how young our kids are – with teaching them to hold on to their possessions lightly and be ready to give as they see needs around them. Giving has little to do with how much you give and a lot more to do with the attitude of your heart. This is hard for a lot of adults, so how do we help our children develop generous hearts? This is a work in progress for my family.

This year, I’m trying something new with my own children and the children I teach at church. As Easter approaches, I’m sharing information with my kids about the Annie Armstrong Easter offering. I started with pulling out a map or globe and introducing them to the idea that the world is so much bigger than they can imagine. We’ve looked through a children’s atlas and scrolled through The Google to show them places and people all over the world. We talked about how there are people all over this world that need to hear about Jesus.

My two boys know that their daddy and I have traveled across the ocean to tell people about Jesus. And they watched as some of our best friends sold all their possessions and gave up their American life to move abroad and be missionaries. We pray daily as a family for missionaries that we support financially. On their own level and in their own way, they are starting to grasp the idea of what it means to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel even though neither one of them have committed their lives to Christ.

Yet they know there is a God who loves them and they know there is a need to tell others about that amazing God. We have to go beyond telling our kids missions is important. We have to go beyond them seeing us doing missions. While those things are significant and necessary, children have to learn why they should be doing missions and how they can be a part of God’s mission.

Since I teach such young preschoolers on Sunday mornings, I wasn’t sure exactly how I should include them or if they’d even understand anything about giving their money to a missions offering. I decided to dive in with an experiment and start planting those seeds of generous giving to God’s work. Since we have been learning about Paul and his missionary journeys over the last couple of months, it was a great segue into talking about the importance of missionary work in today’s world. I gave each of the kids in my class a small money bank filled with candy. I encouraged them to enjoy the candy while they prayed for missionaries. After they finished the candy, they were encouraged to fill their money banks with money for the Annie Armstrong offering. Obviously this required parent participation and support for preschoolers. This was such a perfect way to get parents and whole families involved! One of the little girls in my class helped her mom with some simple chores around the house and earned money for her bank. My three year old made the choice to put some money he was given in the missionary bank instead of his own piggy bank.

After a few weeks, the kids brought back their money jars and we had another short discussion about missionaries and why we were giving money to this offering. We gathered all their little money banks together and prayed for their offering and for the many people that would hear about Jesus because the kids gave their money.

I pray that this simple activity will make a lasting impact on their little hearts. And that these sweet kids will develop generous hearts and want to give to and be a part of God’s mission.