Every year our family does an “Activity Advent” calendar.  Instead of eating a chocolate every day on the countdown to Christmas, we do an activity.  These range anywhere from decorating the tree to baking cookies, to opening a present early.

If you think this sounds like an intimidating task, full of planning and changing plans and making sure things are ready….you’re absolutely right.

This year was especially difficult because our kids, ages 11 and 12, are getting to the “unimpressed” stage.  I can’t just pull out a Christmas craft and expect them to be excited about it, and visiting Santa – which used to be a staple – is just completely out of the question.  Not to mention, we grew the business over Thanksgiving and have been working so many hours to keep up and stabilize the inbox.

I had an idea of the things we were going to do each day, but between cheer practices, basketball games, and other obligations, I was coming home at 9:00 every evening saying “CRAP! I don’t have an activity for tonight,” or “CRAP! We can’t do that activity tonight because….”

So one night when I was just at a complete loss, I asked my husband for some ideas.

“Just give them $5.00 each and call it a day,” he said (kind of) jokingly.  That sparked an idea and we started talking….

A few hours later our kids opened their envelopes and got really excited that they’d just been given $5 without having done anything at all to earn it (the complete opposite of what the norm in our house is). The catch was that they had to use the $5 to help someone else.

Abby got really excited about this challenge and bought someone else’s lunch at school the next day.  Josh took a little time to forget think a little about what he was going to do with his $5.  I think part of him was interested in helping someone else, and the other part was hoping we would forget about it and he’d get to keep the money, but I digress.

That night Josh had Youth Group and took his $5, still not quite knowing what he was going to do with it.  When he got in the car afterward, he told me he put it on his Youth Pastor’s table.

Knowing that the message might not get across and that his Youth Pastor may not know the money was for him, I texted him to let him know if he found $5 near his stuff that it was for him from Josh because Josh really loves him!

A few hours later, the Youth Pastor texted me back the following message that moved me almost to tears and that I will probably keep forever:

“Wow. That’s amazing. 

I love him a lot. That story goes further than him just giving $5 dollars.

I wasn’t sure [what it was for] so I took it to Chick Fil A to give to someone. 

[I] ended up giving it to a kid who had minutes earlier told his friend that he didn’t have enough money in his account to get dinner. 

That same kid had planned to kill himself last week…

Josh’s generosity had a big ripple effect.”

 

If there is one thing I want to teach my kids, and one thing that I wish for all of my readers to remember this Christmas season, it’s this: There is good in this world, and it starts with us.  We can create the very thing we’re looking for.  WE can create peace and joy.  We really can change the immediate world around us, and it takes less than we think.

 

Merry Christmas, everyone!