A few months back we called each of our children to let them know what we wanted for Christmas. We asked that each of them preform some act of service. To take pictures of what they did and write down what they learned. Wrap it up send it to us and that is what we would open as their gift to us on Christmas morning.
What wonderful gifts we received we couldn't of asked for anything better- They each did wonderful acts of service and then very creatively put their words on paper.Service given-
- a mason jar filled with pennies{they had been saving all year} was taken to the bank- in their own words- "Conner was our spokesman and handed the jar to the bank teller and told her we wanted to give this money to the family who had a fire at their house. We waited while she dumped the coins into the coin counter....$59.74 a small amount, but a big lesson in giving for the kids. upon leaving they all agreed that doing this made them feel good."
- Scouting for Food-
- Singing at the local nursing home
- Christmas lights put up on the house of a family from church. The Father/husband is away serving in Iraq.
- several yards of red fleece purchased and during Christmas break the kids are going to help make scarves to donate.
- Toys were purchased for a little boys Christmas
- Cleaning up the local park. {they found several dollars which went in their Penny's Christmas Jar.}
- money from the Penny's Christmas jar went to buy a gift for someone who wasn't going to have a gift for Christmas.
- Care package for a solider in Iraq & letter of appreciation.
- and a few acts of Anonymous service.
"The Savior taught His disciples, "For whosoever will save his life shall lost it: but whoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it."
"I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish...and in effect save their lives." - Thomas S. Monson.
What the adults said-
- Thanks for encouraging us to give and serve this Christmas-
- We learned how much fun it can be to do service for others.
- The gifts brought joy to our hearts, and we talked about how fun it would be to see this boys face as he opened them on Christmas morning.
We really did have a good time getting all the stuff for them, especially since they deserve it. We're sure that to them, these little acts of kindness make their day, as it did ours.
Thanks for having the idea for us to do this, we really did have a good experience with it!
What the kids said-
{when given the choice between basketball and a service project, he chose service project without any hesitation.}
his two reasons: 1}- giving food to poor people is better than just playing basketball, and 2) the snacks there {hot chocolate and dough-nuts} are better than the snacks at basketball.
Carlee now wants to pick up every piece of trash that she sees. and loves to find and save pennies to put in the penny jar.