Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 11:19
“Moreover, also, (you say) there are many children at home; and the multitude of your children checks you from giving yourself freely to good works. And yet on this very account you ought to labor the more, for the reason that you are the father of many pledges. There are the more for whom you must beseech the Lord. The sins of many have to be redeemed, the consciences of many to be cleansed, the souls of many to be liberated. As in this worldly life, in the nourishment and bringing up of children, the larger the number the greater also is the expense; so also in the spiritual and heavenly life, the larger the number of children you have, the greater ought to be the outlay of your labors.”
Cyprian of Carthage (190-258) in his Treatise 8. On Works and Alms, 18.
Don’t overthink this one. If you have children, you should get it quickly.
The more children you have, the more times you need to repeat yourself. We don’t give an example once to children to make something a way of life. And the more children we have, the greater the outlay.
Yesterday John Roomes and I got to facilitate Stations of Generosity for the youth of Grand Cayman.
We did the seven stations over and over with motions: (1) God owns everything. (2) God provides enough. (3) God gives generously. (4) We respond lovingly. (5) We hear God. (6) We find joy. (7) We store treasure.
We did not say these once. Not twice. But dozens of times with motions. In time, they got it.
And, As today’s Scripture notes, we don’t just do this at church. We repeat ourselves and model the way in various settings of everyday life so our children make generous living a part of their everyday lives.
Today we facilitate a launch event to form a peer accountability group for the Cayman Islands like ECFA in USA. Appreciate you prayers for a great meeting.