During the first 3 years of my sickness, our family barely had any income coming in except whatever God laid upon the hearts of God’s people. Before my sickness, we had been training our toddlers to put money in the offering plate. For a time, my family and I moved to Rochester, MN to see what help Mayo Clinic could offer for my illness. There was a family in the church there, the Ludeking’s, whose hearts God touched to graciously make sure our two small children were always supplied with money to put in the offering plate. We never asked. They just thought it was an important lesson in the lives of children. They will definitely have an eternal reward for their part in training our children in the area of giving! 

When is the best time to teach your kids about giving? Now. Not later. Start out by showing your toddlers as you put money in the offering plate as it passes by you. Tell them what you are doing for God. Give them some change to put in the offering plate themselves. When your kids are given any money (birthday, Christmas, allowance, etc…), train them to set aside a tithe (Pro. 3:9 – their “firstfruits”) to give to the Lord. When it is time to determine how much money your family will give to world evangelism for this year, encourage your children to give something monthly to world evangelism as well. Obviously, you want to start small. What a wonderful way to have your kids look to God to provide the money they need to regularly give! 

Our children still give money in nearly every offering. To them, it is just the natural thing to do because we trained them. Regularly, they come up to us wanting to give more to God’s preachers and ministries. Amen! You need to train your children not to think “how could I give anything to the Lord”, but rather, “what can I give to the Lord”!