“What’s Genosity?”

This post was written by a mom named Stacy May from Minneapolis, Mnn and shared on FB.
How might you teach “genosity” this week?

“We have been the recipients of incredible acts of generosity in the three years since my husband lost his full-time job. Friends bought and installed a toilet and sink in an old bathroom that we had never used so we would have two workable bathrooms. My sister asked for donations and raised more than $1,000 at a garage sale and gifted us with the money. Someone anonymously ordered us Coborn’s Delivers one day and stocked our fridge with food. As I was praying one night with my 3-year-old daughter before bedtime and thanking God for people’s generosity, she asked, “’What’s genosity?”’ I realized that the only way to teach my young children is to live out generosity ourselves. While we are the blessed recipients of other people’’s generosity, we can still be generous ourselves in small ways even though we’’re in a tight place financially. Last fall we hosted an outdoor movie in our backyard and invited the neighbors. We played “It’’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and served popcorn and treats. It was a magical night as the leaves fell from the trees and the moon shone brightly on our little gathering of neighbors. Last Christmas we decided to gift an animal to a family in need ….. I thought we could purchase a few chickens or ducks. My 4-year-old son chose a cow. We didn’’t know how we would find $500 to buy a cow. I blogged about it, put it on Facebook, we created a video and talked and prayed about it. By early December we raised $500 through donations and sent the money overseas. It was at that point we had to explain to my tearful son that he wouldn’’t actually get to buy and deliver the cow himself (a point that mom and dad had neglected to clarify). This past summer we held a lemonade stand and donated the money we earned to a local food shelf. I am trying to teach my children that small, intentional choices every day can lead to a lifestyle of generosity—that means being both gracious givers and receivers of ‘genosity.”