One day my kids are going to realize how lucky they are – they have a house to come home to, warm beds to sleep in, food to eat, and parents that love them. And with the holidays coming up, there will be plenty of gifts with their names on them. Once the holidays are over, I’ll struggle to find room for all their new things, because the truth is, they have far more than they will ever need. Not all kids are so lucky, but my kids don’t know that…yet.
I recently heard about a program called Operation Christmas Child, which a non-profit organization that encourages people to pack Christmas shoe-box gifts for children in developing countries around the world. Although the shoe box may be small, it contains something much, much bigger – hope, kindness, and love for a child, who if not for you, might not receive anything this holiday season.
I wish I could tell you that I jumped at the opportunity to be part of this program, but I didn’t. I was too busy with work, I had other blog posts to write, and life in general is too hectic. I didn’t have time to give back. So I put it off. Until I got an email about which caused me to rethink the whole idea. After all, isn’t what giving what the holidays are all about? I needed to find the time to be a part of this project. Plus, this would be yet another chance to teach my kids the true meaning of the holiday season.
Earlier this week on the way home from daycare, I explained to Greenleigh what we were going to do. I told her that there were other little kids that weren’t going to get many toys for Christmas this year and it was our job to help them. I struggled to explain why Santa might not have as many toys for them as they have for her and her sister, but in the end she seemed to get it, and was excited about our project to make 2 shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child.
Of course, she promptly forgot all that I had told her when I brought the bags of toys, hygiene items, and candy in the house. But I reminded her about the kids that we needed to help and she sat down to work on our shoe boxes.
I was really surprised at her enthusiasm for this project. As much as she wanted to keep the toys for herself, she packed them all up. And she was downright giddy when we set off this morning to drop our shoe boxes at the drop off center.
As a parent, I think the best way to teach kindness, generosity, and the true meaning of the holiday season is by setting an example. By showing kids, yours or otherwise, that it’s our job to be part of the solution. By teaching (in a non-scary way) that there are others in need. I hope that you’ll consider being a part of Operation Christmas Child this year, because I’m so glad that we’re a part of it. And in case you’re a parent that’s as busy as I am, they even have an option where you can put together your own shoe box online.
This holiday season build a box with your family to teach kindness, compassion, and generosity.
BlogFrog will match the first 200 boxes that are built. Pledge your commitment below to build a box today on Facebook or Twitter!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Operation Christmas Child. The opinions and text are all mine.
Some little girls are going to be thrilled with those boxes 🙂 We have been packing shoe boxes for OCC for a few years. Actually when I was leading the youth group at our church we did a volunteer project at one of the box processing plants – they need volunteers to check the boxes for anything on the “do not send” list and to tape them closed and pack them in larger boxes for shipping. It was an amazing experience to see all of the thousands of boxes that were packed by generous people like you and your girls 🙂