Speaker 1: 0:07

Welcome to Made for Good, the podcast where we explore how to live out our purpose through good works. Hey, I'm Josh.

Speaker 2: 0:13

And I'm Mark. Today we're talking about the next generation. We're talking about something that not only impacts just us, but how we can teach our children to grow up with a heart for serving others. You know, Josh, raising children in the Lord is one of the greatest responsibilities given to parents. Yeah, and they don't do it. Naturally, it takes guidance, takes guidance from Christian parents. Ok, today we're going to do something just a little bit different at the beginning. We're going to. We've got a couple of stories to share and we think that they're very powerful. They show the examples that we're trying to convey in this involving children in serving others. Josh, why don't you tell your story first?

Speaker 1: 0:57

Sure, I call it the two-cart story Because there were how many carts? Two carts, Two carts okay, nailed it, boy that's that's strong. Put a lot of thought in that. Well, this is just about parents and just really hands on teaching. So the story goes like this there was this dad and he had, I think it was, three kids, if I remember the story right.

Speaker 2: 1:19

So this is a real story. It's a real story. He was told by somebody who knew this actual family, so this is not a made up thing. It really happened, right.

Speaker 1: 1:26

I'm not going to say the names of the family, but yeah for sure. So there was this dad. He had three kids and he told the kids get in the car, we're going to go grocery shopping. And so they went, and on the way there he told the kids today I'm going to let you do something you've never done before, I'm going to let you pick out the food. And yeah, they got really excited. And so when they walked in, he did something interesting. He told them to get two carts. So one kid got one, the other kids got the other, and they start going off into all of the aisles of the grocery store. And what he told them? When they were inside, he said guys, I want you to fill up this cart with your favorite things. And talking about the good stuff, mark, not just bologna.

Speaker 1: 2:15

When they were in the meat section they got to choose steaks. So he would look at the meat section and say what's your favorite? And well, dad, I want the steaks. And so he let them get them. He, they put them in the cart, they'd go further into the aisles and then, uh, they would also. Uh, by the way, when they were in that section they had this other buggy and so, even though they got steaks in the other buggy, he would just throw in like the long. So he had to stake someone belonging the other, so he had. So they kept going. They'd go into the sierra dad, we love, we love fruit loops and and so, okay, we get the box of fruit loops. Well then, he got the off brand of the fruit loops put in the account. So they just kept going row by row by row into these whatever they chose.

Speaker 1: 2:53

Good, he chose like the generic right, right and so, and they weren't paying attention to that because they were so excited they were already seeing this food on their plate right when they got home, right? So as they went through and they finished up, they were checking out and he put one buggy in front of the other so the stuff could be separated. And they got everything bagged. The kids were excited, rushed into the car, they paid and he distinctly put in the back of the trunk the bag separated. So there was the good stuff and there was generic stuff. So they all the kids piled up in the vehicle. They were excited, they buckled up, they were on their way home and they knew how to get home. And as they were on the way home, they were just thinking about what they were going to eat.

Speaker 1: 3:37

And so, uh, on the way home, though, instead of taking a right, they took a left, and they realized that this looks a little different, but they were so excited they didn't care. And then another road. They thought we can cut back here. Well, instead of taking a right, he took a left again, and and the same goes on and on until real. Finally, one of the kids just said dad, where are we going? Well, this isn't the way home. And so he told them well, we're going to go see a family that needs some help. So they didn't think very much about it. They just thought, okay, well, we're going to go do what dad wants us to do. But when they parked, got to the home, they realized this was a family that really that they were. They were even friends with that at church. This family really needed some help, and so he told them it was obvious even to the children. Yes, they knew, they knew, they could even see the environment they were in, and he told them that we were going to do something for them. And so they got out of the car.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Once they parked, he opened the trunk and this is the moment where he asked them the question which groceries are we going to give to them? Are we going to give them the good stuff? Are we going to give them the generic stuff? Imagine what these kids were thinking. They were young. They were like Dad no, not the steaks. Yeah, not, not, not the fruit loops. I mean, come on Right. But what he wanted them to do is to know what's the best decision for this family. How can we help them the most? Would you believe that, ultimately, these kids chose the better stuff? They gave the better stuff. They gave the better stuff. And so they grabbed the bags and they took it.

Speaker 1: 5:04

In their posture wasn't really excited, right, they were a little bit down with their shoulders. But when they saw the other children and they saw the parents to give them the stuff, uh that things started to shift. See these other kids that didn't have what these kids had. They got excited and they were overly thankful and they couldn't believe they had fruit loops and they couldn't believe mom got, we got, stakes. So these kids were able to experience something that they didn't know. This is almost like a trap for them, right. They didn't know that they were going to get to go through this, but what their dad taught them was generosity, and what he taught them was sacrifice and the importance of giving up something for someone else because it matters. Now, in this story, this did happen several times. After that, these kids started to know when dad said get two carts, okay, here we go, here we go.

Speaker 1: 5:50

We know what's going on, but this made a lasting imprint on their lives, where they remember it to this day.

Speaker 2: 5:54

Wow, that is such a powerful story and I've heard you tell it before and it's still a powerful story, even here now as I hear it again. You know I've got a couple of stories I'd like to share and you know these were from my youth. I distinctly remember once my family driving down the road we were in the white Ford four-door Galaxy that my parents had we passed a gentleman who was on the side of the road picking up bottles and cans. Of course, back then one of the ways to get money was to pick those up and take them and turn them in and you could get money for turning in a bottle. And that's obviously what he was doing. And my mom asked my dad to turn around. We were in a divided highway so he did go down a little bit, turn around, come back. Meanwhile she's digging in her purse and we didn't have a lot of money, so she pulls out a $5 bill. She asked him to pull off the side of the road when we got close to the man and so she rolled her window down. You know the old crank top, you know squeaky window rolls down, the old crank top. You know squeaky window rolls down and the gentleman comes up and she gives him a $5 bill and he's very grateful, of course, and you know we're sitting in the back seat.

Speaker 2: 7:18

I'm sure that my mom was not thinking I'm going to teach my kids a lesson today. I don't think that was her focus. We were very young. I mean, I was in elementary school and I'm much older today and she's been gone since 2013. And I still remember that story. Her intention was to help the person. As we've said before, she had compassion on this man who's out there. Obviously, that's not what you do if you're wealthy. It's not even what you do if you have the ability to make ends meet. That's a person who can't make ends meet. He was out there just trying to literally pick up pennies, essentially.

Speaker 2: 8:03

And there's another story that I remember from my youth that was even younger. I was not even in elementary school, so this had to be four or five years old, elementary school, so this had to be four or five years old. Again, it was very clear in my mind I had just my mom had just bought me a brand new pair of tennis shoes. They were white, they were super cool. I was really excited about them, and her and one of her friends had gone to visit.

Speaker 2: 8:31

What I remember in my mind was a single mom with a little boy, maybe about my age, and we went to visit and I'm just there, I'm just enjoying these shoes really and my mom does the most shocking thing to me at that time that she could have done. She asked me to take off my new shoes and we were going to leave them with the little boy, and it was such a powerful example. Again, my mom was not focused on teaching me a lesson. She was focused on meeting the need of that little boy who maybe didn't even have a pair of shoes. I don't know, but I wound up giving him my pair of shoes.

Speaker 2: 9:15

I don't have a memory of this, but I'm sure that I got another pair of shoes, maybe even on the way home, maybe even a little bit better, I don't know. My mom, my parents, always took care of us, so she saw a need and in this case she involved me the same way the father in your story involved the kids in making the decisions. You know, I don't remember pitching a fit. I do remember being sad that my new shoes were not mine anymore. You know, these are stories that impact us, you know, throughout our life and we could share with others. It's not something that was, I think, intentionally designed as a teaching moment. It was just meeting a need.

Speaker 1: 10:01

Yeah, you know this episode well. We some of our episode titles we know are silly. There's that saying do as I say, not as I do. Yeah, this episode is entitled Do as I Do, and one of the things that the reasons why we've told the stories we did is it shows just that we can do some special things to our children at a very young age, make an imprint on their hearts so they'll know how to serve when they get older, and so I appreciate you sharing the stories that you did.

Speaker 2: 10:32

What we're saying really here is that children learn by watching and, maybe, even more powerfully, by doing, by participating in it. You know, let's take a look at a verse in Psalm 127, the 127th Psalm, verse four and five. This compares children to arrows. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. Now, we always focus on the latter part of that. You know, it's great to have a lot of children. Okay, blessed is the man who fills his quiver with all these arrows, with all these children. But don't miss the first part of it. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, arrows don't hit the target on of it. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, Arrows don't hit the target on their own. They must be aimed. In the same way, we have to intentionally guide our children toward a life of faith and also of service.

Speaker 1: 11:26

Love that the Bible is full of wisdom about raising our children to serve. Matter of fact, one of our most favorite verses and, I guess, well-known verses in Proverbs 22, 6, where it says Training our children means more than just telling them what to do. It means showing them through our actions.

Speaker 2: 11:50

Yeah, and Deuteronomy 6, verse 7 kind of gives us a strategy. You know this is something that can be done. You know, throughout the day it says Faith is not just something that we teach our children when we're at church. It really should be woven into our everyday life. Our homes really should be the first place that kids see serving others in action.

Speaker 1: 12:26

Let's get into our mission profile. Obviously, there's just a lot to think about when it comes to teaching our children about good works and really just how to get them plugged in and involved. Here's some things or some things for you to consider, some great ways to do just that. Make service a family habit. What I'm talking about is something like volunteering together, maybe at a local food bank, or even going to assisted living to go visit someone that you may know from church or your family, and include your child. And then I just think about some other little projects that you might could do that are service related. Our natural thing within inside of us as a parent, or maybe just I can say as me, and maybe this says a lot about me Sometimes you just think, well, I can do it real quickly and let's get the kid out of the way. No, no, wyatt, I know you want to help, but dad can do this, and then you can fill in the blank. Take a step back, parents. This is not about you. This is about involving your children and helping out. Another thing to do is teach them to notice needs. This is where I'm at with my oldest. I have a nine-year-old and a six-year-old, and one of the things that Haley and I have done with our nine-year-old is we encourage him to look out to help others. We want him to have conversations with people. You might've heard of this thing called the three-minute rule, where as soon as service is over, for the first three minutes don't go talk to the people that you know or your little circle. Get out and talk to visitors or people that you don't know as well. Do it for three minutes. That's a good thing for us to do as adults in general. We have done this thing with our children over time. I'm not saying we've been really consistent with it, but we've told our children to do it Go talk to someone you don't know. Specifically, we wanted our oldest to go talk to someone who was older and we didn't want them just to say, you know, hey, I'm Wyatt and run away. What we asked Wyatt to do specifically was ask how their day was, how they were feeling, and that was a really cool thing to see and watch, and obviously he knows I'm watching him like a hawk, so he's got to go do this thing. But the cool thing afterwards was hearing some of the elderly people come to Haley and I and just say like was hearing some of the elderly people come to Haley and I and just say, like you're not gonna believe this. Your son asked me how I'm doing and that exercise that we've done over time. What I can say is Wyatt now does that from time to time. I've seen him at family gatherings doing that and I know it sounds like I'm ragging on my son, but it's an example of you need to teach your children to notice things around them.

Speaker 1: 14:53

We've talked about awareness this can happen at a very young age and then talk about why we serve. This is a little embarrassing. I have a six-year-old Right now. This is where we're at with my six-year-old On the journey. Yes, I will say this even on this episode that he has said that he don't want to go to church. I've heard him say that episode that he has said that he don't want to go to church. I've heard him say that. And so Haley and I, I feel like often, are at the point where we're saying why we serve and I think back to something my mom used to say. She would say, josh, we don't have to go, like I was telling her we get to go. And that's where I'm at with my youngest. We're explaining why we serve God and why we want to be more like him, and then just celebrate generosity. One of the things that we can do to stir up our children is to praise them when they show kindness and praise them when they show selflessness.

Speaker 2: 15:48

You know, in the last episode we talk about husbands and wives serving together and one of the examples would be to, you know, to have have some people in our home for a meal, and if you've got children, you know, it's a great way to involve them as well. Maybe you let your daughter or son set the table and someone comes in and said, oh wow, you know your table looks so nice. And then you go well, you know Billy set the table for us. Or you know Kimberly set the table for us, and if they're standing right there, like you, just praise them in front of everyone and that's so good. They. They contributed to the blessings of the evening, if you can use that, the whole vibe for the night. They were a part of it.

Speaker 1: 16:29

I love that and especially as with kids they're it's more interesting than adults.

Speaker 2: 16:33

You can see their body language instantly change when you give them that credit that big smile Absolutely Well, let's not forget kids watch what we do, not just what we say. So if they see us serving with joy and purpose, then they'll eventually learn to do the same thing Right. And so what we're really doing is teaching them to serve the Lord, and we really need to teach them that their work honors God, amen. Colossians 3, 23 through 24 says Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance of your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Speaker 2: 17:21

Such a powerful verse, yeah, and there's another one in Philippians 2, verse 3, you know, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but humbly count others more significant than yourselves. We'll use that verse before as well, showing and teaching children that their work is not just for themselves. If they're cleaning their room, it's not just for the family. When they set the table, they need to get the mindset that all that they're doing and again, colossians 3, 23, whatever you do, work hardly as if you're doing it for God. And teaching that lesson early, man. It's going to pay dividends to them in their schoolwork. It's going to pay dividends to them as they get their first job. They're going to be full of integrity when they work, knowing that if nobody else is seeing this, even if no one else is seeing this, god sees it, and I'm going to work as if my service is an offering to God. It really can kind of change their attitude towards work. It's not something that they want to avoid. They can look at it as service to God.

Speaker 1: 18:28

Yeah, before I get into the mission challenge of this week, I just want to say I am not a perfect dad at all. My kids are like rabbit dogs most of this week. I just want to say I am not a perfect dad at all. My kids are like rabid dogs most of the time, and so we're learning as we go. But there's your kids are great. There's been some helpful things today that we've looked at scripture. They're really powerful and have been helpful for a lot of us as parents. We hope it's helpful for you. But as far as our mission challenge for you this week, well, parents, here we go. It's about making time as a family to serve, and here it is. Here's the weekly challenge Make service a family event.

Speaker 1: 19:05

The first thing we want you to do is we want you to plan a family service project. Pick something that everyone can do, by the way, don't just pick something that you and your wife are good at. Think about your children specifically so everyone can participate, and this can happen in so many ways. You can make a care package together as a family around your kitchen table. You can look out for awareness if you're trying to teach them that Help out a neighbor. I mean there's just tons of stuff, right. But specifically, make this a hands-on activity, as I've kind of hinted at. Keep your children involved in the decision-making. Let them be a part of the choosing and organizing and even carrying it out. That way they can get the ability to serve in a number of different facets and then talk about the why. When this thing is all done, I want you to have a conversation around that kitchen table again with your children and discuss how it made them feel and explain to them how they just honored God.

Speaker 2: 19:58

Obviously an optional challenge here is you could try the two carts idea. I mean, this is a very achievable thing. Next time you go shopping, get two carts and let the kids pick out groceries for another family in need and then go and deliver them. As you described that story, the impact of that was the kids bringing the groceries into the house and seeing the reaction of the children in the house and maybe even the parents. So I bet you the parents were probably tearing up, and for them to see that impact is just super powerful and it will make a lasting impression on them. Okay, so that's it for today's episode of Made for Good. If this conversation encouraged or challenged you in any way, be sure that you subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss the next one.

Speaker 1: 20:46

And we hope that you found this helpful and if you did consider sharing it with a friend. Until next time, train up the next generation. Lead by example and remember you were made for this. Thank you.