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
“Another study of 682 adolescents found evidence for a bidirectional relationship between prosocial values and high-cost prosocial behaviors, such as volunteering—in other words, engaging in those behaviors seemed to nurture prosocial values, just as prosocial values seemed to promote those behaviors.
This suggests to the authors that “it may be particularly important to engage teens in high-cost prosocial behavior in an attempt to further promote moral identity via personal values.”
Studies of adult volunteers have also found that people who volunteer place more importance on prosocial values than non-volunteers do. Appealing to people’s morality can also encourage generosity. One study found that just adding the sentence, “Note that he relies on you” increased giving in a game.”
Summer Allen in “The Science of Generosity” White Paper produced by the Greater Good Science Center.
Don’t miss what the Torah and the research are saying to us today.
We need to teach our children at home and give them opportunities outside the home to serve others in “prosocial” Christian ways. When we do this, it benefits those we serve. It also increases the probability that they will live out Christian values.
And for everyone we communicate with intentionality.
The statement “note that he relies on you” implies that each of us is part of something bigger and those of us with influence can teach people to be alert to serve others in need. Whether it’s with youth or adults, engaging in service causes us to live out our values and grow in generosity.
Think of ways to involve others, youth or adults, in what you are doing.
Get involved with me in Europe right now. When this email posts I will be somewhere between Denver and Munich, and then I will connect to Vienna. I have strategic meetings in Slovakia, Czechia, Poland, and Austria, including a huge dinner with 150-200 of the top Christian workers of Slovakia on 7 September 2023. That’s why the back to back international trips.
Reply if you want my trip schedule to see the trip aims and items for prayer.
With Gabriel Hakulín, GTP Regional Facilitator for Europe, I am engaging key people who will meet in 2024 to discuss the formation of a peer accountability group (like ECFA in USA) for Eastern Europe. These are some really important meetings and I rely on you to help me attend them. Please click here to make a gift to GTP today. Thanks.
I appreciate your prayers for safe travel, sufficient provision, and protection for my wife and family back home.