Raising generous kids: A junior Journey of Generosity

When we think about biblical generosity, ideas like tithing, giving goals, or our legacy might come to mind. But living generously isn’t just for established adults well into their careers and lives. A life of generosity can start at a young age. In fact, if we’re being honest, we know generosity often comes more naturally to kids than adults.

Whether it’s a tendency to hold more tightly to what we have the older we get – or the more we get – I believe our kids have a greater capacity for generosity than most of the adults around them. It’s up to us, as adults, to celebrate and encourage that natural radical generosity.

A couple months ago, I had the opportunity to witness the generosity of our youngest generation through co-hosting what we called a “Junior JOG.”

A Journey of Generosity (JOG) is an event structure created by Generous Giving. It is an impactful, in-person retreat that allows six to eight couples to discuss generosity in light of their relationship with God and with money. Paradigms of generosity shift through listening to stories of generous individuals, spending time in the Word, and hearing messages from Christian leaders. If you’ve never been a part of a JOG, I highly recommend finding (or hosting) one.

However, these retreats can be very limiting for parents of younger kids because of the demands on their time. There are baseball games, piano recitals, family dinners, and bedtime routines to stand in the way of young parents taking time off. They may be interested in attending a JOG, but taking a Friday and Saturday away from home – and away from kids – is an obstacle.

In my experience, when these younger families hear about or are invited to a JOG, they give one of two responses: “Can I bring my kids?” or “Maybe we can think about that when the kids are out of the house.”

But God is calling us into a life of generosity now. And he is calling us to bring our kids along for the journey.

That’s why I dreamed of hosting a JOG that worked for families with young children. In 2020, Generous Giving hosted online JOGs and, while powerful in their own way (in their breadth and scope), there’s nothing like sitting in the same room with a small group of like-minded people.

So, I began planning and brainstorming an in-person Junior JOG. The experience was no less impactful than a typical JOG. In fact, some might argue, since it involved multiple generations, it had an even greater impact.

We invited four families, including mine, to participate. Among the four couples, there were 20 kids who (with the exception of my seven year old) ranged from 10 to 14 years old. While my family stayed at a nearby hotel, the other three families were local, and one of the local families generously hosted the Junior JOG sessions in their home.

Kids were invited to be a part of the experience from beginning to end. Instead of the typical JOG experience of all adult couples or parents of grown children sitting around discussing how to best steward their money in their later adult years, kids joined the discussions. We gathered in our host home Friday night and Saturday morning, and young families were able to discuss how to make generosity a priority right now.

The three main objectives we sought were:

1. to learn how to excel in the grace of giving
2. to practice listening to and obeying the Lord’s prompting for our lives
3. to develop a vision for sharing the joy of living generously

We used materials from both Generous Giving and I Like Giving to pass the joy of giving down through the generations. We began our JOG on a Friday evening by watching the video “I Like Soccer Balls,” which tells the story of a 10-year-old child who went with his family to Mozambique and connected with the children there over their shared love of soccer. He saw the kids were playing with soccer balls made from trash and decided that when his family returned to Mozambique he would bring real soccer balls for the kids.

Back home, he started calling businesses that manufacture soccer balls. The first one ignored him completely, but he persevered. Today, he has hand-delivered approximately 1,200 soccer balls to children all over Africa. This act of generosity has helped his family transform relationships and entire communities.

For the kids in our Junior JOG, seeing someone their age persevere to make such an impact was transformative. After the video, we asked questions and discussed the video as a group. Afterwards, we ate pizza for dinner and adjourned for the night.

Everyone was able to go back to their own homes. Kids slept in their own beds. Bedtime routines were kept. We met at the host home the next morning for breakfast, but instead of discussing generosity further, we knew the kids needed to get out and experience it firsthand. So, we encouraged each family to take a few hours and put generosity into action.

One family remembered seeing a list that a local charity had shared of items many unhoused people need. So, they went to Walmart and found toothbrushes, toothpaste, socks, and blankets. They spent their time putting together kits to pass out.

Another family saw an older man picking up trash along the side of the road. They talked about how service is a wonderful form of generosity and decided to help their community by cleaning the trash off the side of the road as well.

Our family planned how we would be generous when we got back home. There was a big snow forecasted for the next weekend, and we knew of a few single women in our neighborhood who might need help. We decided to shovel their driveways after the snow hit. On top of that, my boys helped make Valentine’s Day cookies to bring to them.

The families returned and shared their experiences and plans over lunch. After lunch, we separated kids and adults for half an hour so we could have a quick, more typical JOG conversation with the adults while the kids explored more “I Like Giving” stories.

When we departed Saturday afternoon, I couldn’t help but wonder what the ripple effect will be for these kids 20, 30, or 40 years down the road because they spent time diving deep into generosity with their families.

All over the country, we start JOGs with this question: What is your earliest memory of money or generosity before the age 13? Usually, it’s not a good memory. Usually, the memories are of parents scraping money together, having barely enough to cover groceries, or of parents spending lavishly on themselves, and saving and giving very little.

So many of our beliefs about money and generosity stem from childhood. Was money scarce or plentiful? Our earliest memories of money are so often associated with stress, greed, or bickering.

I deal with many families who would admit that they did not have these conversations early enough. And now, as they’re thinking about multi-generational stewardship and passing on their wealth, they’re concerned the next generation’s vision for generosity is not aligned with theirs.

Having conversations now, through a Junior JOG or a simple conversation around the dinner table, allows you to invite your kids into what you’re doing and explain the ways you’re giving and why.

Get your kids involved. Having these conversations together early will help set the stage for a future generosity-driven generation. If you want to learn more about our Junior JOG or how to host one yourself, feel free to reach out to me at emost@ncfgiving.com. Image used with permission