Growing Compassion

When I look at our children interacting with other children I am usually pretty proud of their ability to share and play nice. However, there are times when I think, "bummer, I wish they would have handled that differently."

I am beginning to think that compassion starts in the sandbox. When we teach our children to share and put the wants of their friend before their own, we are helping them to understand compassion. I realize that this is really compassion in its simplest form, but young children need to start somewhere. I don't believe that compassion is something that just happens, I believe that it is a quality our children need to learn. Learn through modeling, demonstrating and some trial and error.

With our 52 weeks of blessing adventure we have been taking this year, I have noticed more instances for us to learn compassion. It seems that helping others, helps you see things from a different point of view. We have had a great time coming up with different ways to show compassion to others. We are now more than half-way through our journey. Here are some blessings we have shared:

Our children like to make things for others: cards, notes, crafts and such. We have found that these types of items really do a lot to tell people that they our loved. We have used ours for blessing those on the prayer list at church, showing compassion for the struggle they are going through. We also made a bunch for the members of our extended family, neighborhood or congregation that God lays on our heart. Every time we make these types of notes we receive such wonderful stories about how they touched the receivers heart. The cards/notes don't need to be fancy, they can even have misspellings, people just really like to see the work of the children and know that someone cares.

Another activity we have grown to really enjoy is random giving. The first time we gave out gift cards at a local grocery store, that one was certainly the most impactful, but also the most expensive. Since then, we have also given out free ice cream cone cards for a local restaurant and freezie pops to workers at a Christian music festival. We have found it extremely fulfilling to just stop and give someone something for no apparent reason. 

One of the easiest ideas we have used to bless others is baking treats. We have baked treats for crossing gurds, lifeguards, church coffee hour, and the cast of the community play. This is one project that is easy to involve even the youngest members of the family. It is also great for blessing many people all in the same location.

God might not be asking your family to take a 52 week challenge, but maybe He is calling you to bake some treats for Sunday or write a note of encouragement to the lady down the block. Whatever ideas come to mind, let me encourage you to include your children in the process. They will enjoy the quality time with you and learn a little bit about compassion along the way. If we desire to have children that are compassionate, let us start now and help this characteristic grow with our child.