Joy to the World (for small children)

Singing Songs til Christmas Day

I bought a change counting bank. The kind that adds up the money as you drop change inside of it. At church last weekend, the youth had a table set up and were collecting money for hunger awareness. 26,000 children die daily because they do not have food to eat. It only takes $1 per day to feed a child. I talked with Conleigh about this and surprisingly, she remembered the 26,000 number.
Later that evening we decided that we would try to fill the bank with our change during the month and donate that to our church. The kids were enjoying putting their piggy bank money into the counting bank. I stopped them and we are doing it slowly now with money we find or even money they take out of their banks, but not all at one time.
Last Thursday night, the children were getting to bed late. We had had all the Sysco folks over for a holiday celebration. Conleigh has 2 books she is supposed to read to us each night. I was going to let her skip them that night, but she broked into tears wanting to read, so we did. She began to get silly and on the last page of the second book, she whipped the page over and r-i-p! Instant tears. She was devastated. I tried to reassure her that she was not the first kindergartener to tear a book, but there was no reasoning going on. After hugs and trying to get her to settle down, we told her she needed to get $8 out of her piggy bank. There is a paper that comes with her books stating the replacement cost is $8. In change, we counted out $8. She was so sad. She said, "I wanted to give all that money to the kids who don't have any food." My heart ached for my little girl. She was so sincere in her desires, but she also needed to learn the lesson of taking care of things that are not hers.
She went to sleep quickly that evening. By Thursday every week she is tired, and then to add the party and book incident to the picture -- pure exhaustion.
On Friday night, as I put her to bed, I offered for mommy & daddy to put $8 of our money into the counting back to add to our gift for the children's food. She liked that and thought it was a good idea.
Lord, I am thankful for the giving heart of my daughter Conleigh.