If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Matthew 18:6
“Studies of older children suggest how context and developmental stage influence this seemingly inherent drive to help others. Three-year-olds will mostly share their rewards from a collaborative task equally, even when they could have taken more for themselves, but share less equally when rewards came from a windfall or a task they completed on their own. For three-year-old children, previous sharing by a partner led to more sharing with that partner later, but for two year olds a partner’s previous sharing had no impact on their later sharing. Five year olds, but not three year olds, increased the amount they shared with someone who they thought might reciprocate their generosity. Collectively these studies suggest that even relatively early in human development, children’s generosity is influenced by contextual factors that become more nuanced as children get older.”
Summer Allen in “The Science of Generosity” White Paper produced by the Greater Good Science Center.
Jesus spoke pointedly about our influence on little ones. The research tells us why. Contextual factors can greatly influence the development of children, and this includes their generosity.
Our interaction with them can point them into the right direction or lead them astray.
If we say that America is following Europe and becoming post-Christian, might it be because we are not passing on our Christian values, including generosity to our children and grandchildren.
So, what we can do is not fret about it but form our children and grandchildren with intentional activities.
Try this. When our kids were little we put them to work. Make your bed. Put your toys away. And each week we gave them three dollars. A dollar to give, a dollar to save for larger or future purchases, and a dollar to spend.
We gave them jars. They made labels for them. Do this with your children and grandchildren.
It teaches them to give, save, and spend within their means. And the most important lesson is that it shows them how to make money their slave and not be a slave to money. And positions them to influence their peers.
I will share one other lesson learned related to fly fishing with my son.
When he was little, he was thrilled to catch a fish. He even loved putting them in a spot in the river where he could look at them after releasing it. Then as he got older, he started to want to compete with me, to catch more fish.
Rather than compete, we determined to take turns on great spots and count our total fish count.
I think the year he was about 13 years old, we set a goal of catching 500 fish that year and landed, 541. No kidding. We just went fishing again and landed 11 beautiful Greenback Cutthroat Trout in Herman Gulch in 2.5 hours on the water.
The best part of the outing was his generosity toward me.
He makes his way up the ice-cold stream faster than me, and what would he do. He would sight fish holding in difficult spots in the clear water and we would take turns catching them. It was technical and fun fly fishing.
This generous sharing of epic experience started when he was little. I did the same thing for him.
I was not as skilled as he has become, by far. By back in the day I tied on his flies and gave him most of the good runs and holes. Someday I will need him to do the same for me.
Not yet though. When the day comes I am sure he will help me. Enjoy the picture of one of the trout.