Mr. Ornery is impossible to take into a store. It’s a guaranteed extra $50-75 any time we check-out. He always “needs” something — whether it’s a specific food item or the “need” to spend his allowance. It is always something.

And I try to remind myself that this is part of growing up and that if I continue to persist, hopefully we’ll make it to the point where his “giving” nature is a bit greater than his “accumulating” nature. But if you take a look at his current Nerf gun collection and Legos you know that we have a long way to go.

There are glimpses of hope, however. He does like to give gifts to friends. At Christmas time he really wanted to buy some toy skateboards to give to his friends with whom he plays a recess. Apparently a few of them bring in these mini skateboards and try to make them do flips and tricks using their fingers. He is also quite generous with gifts for his teachers and will “gift” things around the house to his brothers, like putting together a snack for them or wrapping up a toy and giving it to them.

A couple weeks ago, my sister took my younger two and her 8-year-old to see TobyMac (Christian Hip-Hop performer) in concert. That was a tremendous gift to me to have hours of time free to have dinner with a friend. Part way through the concert, Mr. Ornery called my cell phone and asked permission to buy ball caps. About an hour later, my sister texted, “Mr. Ornery got you a sponsor child. I can give it back. LOL”  “No, keep it,” I replied. The fact that Mr. Ornery thought about sponsoring a child warmed my heart. He was so excited about the packet when he brought it home. “Look, Mom, a girl name Yvonne. It says she lives in Rwanda. Can we send her $50 a month?” “Yes.” “Great, can we send her $80 a month?”…

I’ve been reflecting a bit that I grew up in a “giving” household. My parents were missionaries in Thailand while I was a young girl. I watched them every day give of their time and of their money and of their material things. I learned from my family, from my church, and from my friends to be a “giving” person. I began to wonder how much my boys see of that “giving” nature in me. I’ve done quite a bit of donating time in starting up a nonprofit crisis nursery and I try to point out to the boys that I’m “giving” my time now in meetings to help keep it running smoothly. And they see me giving to the offering plate at church and to the people along the side of the road when we’re downtown.

But they don’t often see the “giving” in terms of sharing with others via monthly monetary support. So I decided that our house needed a “Giving Tree” where we can share and celebrate the opportunity to be able to give to others.

On our tree, we have the sponsored girls from Guatemala and now from Rwanda (through Food for the Hungry). We have a picture of our church and will add a picture of a dear friend who works in campus ministry. We also need a picture of me running the marathon relay as a way to raise money for work in Haiti through Haiti H2O. And I’ll grab a photo of the boys when they share Easter eggs with residents of a nearby nursing home next week.

My hope is that this becomes a dynamic, changing and ever-growing tree. My hope is that the boys develop an ever-growing awareness of the blessings in their lives and the call upon all of us to give and share with those who have less than us.

My hope is that I can keep looking for those tiny glimpses of the boys’ giving nature and help that blossom further, deeper and more beautifully.