Tips For Teaching Your Kids About Giving

🎁 Every child loves gifts. When we teach our kids proper manners, they learn to say "thank you." These fundamentals along with a few others, can form a surprisingly solid foundation for their future understanding of giving to God.

1: Emphasize God's Generosity toward Us.

Verses like Luke 6:38, Romans 8:32 and James 1:17 are great places to start. Encourage your child to memorize these verses. (There are some fun games you can play to help them memorize Bible verses.) 
1 John 4:19 says, "We love Him because He first loved us." Since giving is an expression of love, you could apply this verse to generosity. We give to Him, because He first gave to us. God has withheld nothing good from us. As early as Creation (Genesis 1:29), we see our generous God blessing mankind and providing for our every need. If we understand what we can about God's loving generosity toward us, how can we respond to His generosity with anything but open hearts?

2: Treat Giving to God as a Normal Part of Life.

Treat stinginess and greed as weird and cheerful generosity as normal. Turn the world values upside down. When your kids see your own commitment to giving to God, they will follow your example. "Do as I say, not as I do," won't work here. You can get to a place where it's not even a question whether we will give to God. Of course we will give. We will give at least 10% and pray about giving more. This can become as normal to your children as breathing, bathing, brushing their teeth, and putting their clothes on. As diligently as you teach them these basics, teach them the fundamental discipline of giving to God.

3: When They Receive Money, Guide Them to Return a Portion to God.

🎈Kids love receiving birthday money, Christmas money, and allowances. They may even operate a lemonade stand, conduct a yard sale, start a business, become a YouTube influencer, or find a $5 bill in the sofa. Any time your kids come into money of any amount you have an opportunity to teach them the value of returning a portion of what they have received to God. You can teach them that everything good we have is a gift from God (James 1:17). You are able to provide for them, because God has given resources to you as their parent. It's all God's anyway. We are stewards of what He has entrusted to us. Whether He entrusts $1 or $1,000 to your children, you can teach them to return a portion to God.

4: Connect Their Giving to Prayer.

Jesus Himself said, "Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be" (Matthew 6:21 and Luke 12:34, NLT). There is also a principle that we move toward the things we pray for most intently. 
If you pray with your kids for the success of the Lord's work, your heart will move toward the success of the Lord's work. As a result, your kids will develop a heart for giving to God.
When I was a kid, my parents helped me put together a notebook with prayer cards for the different missionaries that visited our church. One family in particular was ministering in Canada, and they came to our church to cast vision for their mission field and to request our help in purchasing a large van for the ministry. We prayed for them to be able to get this van. With all this praying, as a kid, I felt led to give. I contributed a quarter to the cause. 
🚐 The missionaries raised the funds to purchase their van. I got my picture made with the missionary in front of the new van. Our church taught that no matter the size of the gift I gave, I had a share in the Kingdom fruit that this family was able to bear through the use of this van. And I believe that with all my heart. 

5: Reward Them for Giving.

My son and I recently attended a men's prayer breakfast at our church. At the end of the buffet line of this monthly breakfast, there is typically a donation basket for us guys to toss a few bucks in to help cover the cost of the meal. As my son and I were leaving our house to go to the breakfast, I had him get some money out of his toy bank to donate toward the cost of his breakfast. I explained, "You cannot out-give God. God always blesses you for what you give to Him." (My plan was to give him money the next day in his bank to teach this principle.) 
When we got to the breakfast, my boy pulled out his money and put it in the basket. The guys who cooked that morning said, "It's free today! No donations accepted." The guy who sponsored the food did not want to be repaid. They had my son take his money back. Right then, I took the opportunity to teach him that God had just rewarded his generosity by giving his money back.
There's nothing wrong with you giving their money back or doubling their money to teach the principle. God can use you to reward their giving. I've also heard hundreds of testimonies of how God rewarded people for their generosity. It's a tried and true principle. In fact, God urges us to put Him to the test in this area in Malachi 3:10.

Using these five tips, you can set your children up for a lifetime of God's blessing as they continue being faithful stewards of everything God entrusts to them.

Billy Shaw is the Lead Pastor of Town Creek Baptist Church in Leland, NC. With an MDIV from Southeastern Seminary and an MBA (Finance) from the Regent University School of Business and Leadership, Pastor Billy enjoys helping churches achieve financial health through biblical and practical insights. He is available to local churches as a keynote speaker and consultant.