Article: The message of Gideon's Gift...
The message of Gideon's Gift began with a simple story around our living room. Our family reads something inspirational every morning before the kids go to school, and that morning the story was about giving. We read that God loves a cheerful giver. Then we applied the story to a real situation in our community. If we could collect $17.39, eight people at the Portland Rescue Mission would eat a Thanksgiving dinner, eight people who otherwise would've gone without.
The kids sat around the room wide–eyed. "You mean they don't have food?" Our 4–year–old, Austin had tears in his eyes. Across from him, Sean, 7, let his mouth hang open. "And nowhere to sleep?" We assured them that many people – even in America – had no family to care for them. This was a chance to spread a little of God's love and let them know we cared. The message was something close to the hearts of our children. After all, a year earlier we'd adopted three of our children – all first grade boys – from Port–au–Prince Haiti. Sean, Josh, and EJ, especially understood what it was to go without food.
With the story clear in their hearts, we asked the children to go upstairs and check their piggy banks. "Pray about it," we told them. "See if there's something you want to give to help these people eat."
The children scampered up the stairs and in no time they were tripping over themselves to get back down. In their hands they clutched wads of dollar bills and fistfuls of coins. Several of the kids had given everything they had. One of our sons kept back two dollars and gave one of them to the brother next to him who'd given all his money away. The spirit of giving was palpable among us, and never...never have I seen my children so happy.
We spread the bounty out on the living room floor and when it was all counted we had $31.55. Nearly twice what we needed to feed the people at the Portland Rescue Mission! That Thanksgiving we stood around the table and stared at the eight empty seats laid out before us. "Somewhere," my husband said, "in the city of Portland, eight people are eating dinner tonight because of the generosity of our children." He began the blessing that night by thanking God for the gift of our precious little ones, and for the lesson they'd so easily taught us all.
The next day I had the strongest desire to get to my computer keyboard. And there a very special story flowed from my heart.
A story I call, Gideon's Gift.
Copyright © 2002 Karen Kingsbury