How We Guide Our Families Through Giving and Receiving During Advent
As we near Christmas, our advisors at the Christian Financial Advisors Network wanted to share how they guide their families through giving and receiving during the Advent season and the faith impact that it has.
Enjoy!
Ben Wacek on Intentional Giving
Christmas is a time that our family enjoys giving and receiving gifts, but we work hard to remind our kids (and ourselves!) that the reason we’re able to give and receive gifts is because God first gave us the greatest gift we could ever receive - his son!
Some of the practical ways that our family strives to respond to God’s generosity toward us is by putting together “blessing bags” to hand out to homeless people we see, giving a gift to the girl we support through Compassion International, and giving gifts to friends and family members. We also enjoy going through an advent devotional together during the month of December that points us back toward the goodness of Christ.
Even amidst our best efforts, it’s still so easy to get pulled back into the business of the season, but we’re grateful for God’s grace, as together we worship the baby king.
Chris Wells on Isolating Generosity
The spirit of generosity during the Christmas season can be easily hindered by one major obstacle - especially as we try to train our children in this.
Traditionally at Christmas, you are both receiving and giving gifts at the same time. It can easily become more of gift exchange than an act of generosity. And this expectation is set from the beginning. If my older daughter gives her sister a gift, and the other does not reciprocate, there will likely be some frustration from the older sibling towards her sister. This is not the spirit of generosity that we want to instill in our kids.
Like any area of family discipleship, this takes an on-going, consistent approach and not a one-time quick fix. It takes a year worth of helping your kids find the joy in generosity, not just during the month of December. One practical step that I’ve found to help, is to separate out times of generosity when your children do not expect to receive anything. As an example, if my 3 year-old daughter and I go to get donuts, we will get an extra bag of donut holes to surprise one of her friends with. Or if we’re giving small Christmas gifts to her friends, we will try to do so early, before she would potentially receive gifts from friends (separating out the giving and receiving).
This is a practical example, but some of the more impactful ways to guide our family will come from the reason behind our generosity, as Ben mentioned above. Reminding our kids (and ourselves) that we have received, through Christ, far more than we could ever offer to give to God.
Donovan Brooks on Connecting Sacrifice to Giving
Every year during Advent season our church highlights different causes and organizations worth supporting (both local and non-local). The causes typically include supporting the most vulnerable women and children, youth ministries, discipling college students, Operational Christmas Child, and more. The rationale is that maybe we can forgo some spending during the Christmas season in order to support the needs of others.
This has been a valuable opportunity to live and share the Gospel. Amy and I get to share with our kids that the Christmas season is primarily about God’s gift to us. Yes it’s fun to “receive” gifts, after all we are receiving Jesus, but we also get to shift the focus towards giving which is something of God’s heart. We have the opportunity to highlight the importance of forgoing our wants so that the needs of others can be fulfilled AND that they may feel the love of Christ in the process.
For us, we’re trying to instill giving as something that is natural and that would should be eager to participate in out of obedience. Overall, we love that the Advent seasons is a very practical way to experience and talk about the Gospel within our family!
Kaysi Gordon on Giving of Ourselves
As I am working with clients and discussing the Christmas season, I often encourage them to give things that are meaningful to the recipient and not just for the sake of giving a gift. It’s also important to understand what your financial situation looks like, without burdening yourself with the thought that you need to give a gift. As an example, I have a client, who I know does not need another gift basket or any other thing that I would give clients - but I knew she would appreciate the gift of time talking over a meal. So, I gave her that option, and she happily accepted.
Also, when we consider the recipients, what do they truly appreciate the most? Even in this season of gift giving, maybe an experience would make the person happiest. For my daughter, I’ve offered to purchase the gift she wants online so that she would have it to open on Christmas morning. Instead, she has requested that we go the day after Christmas to the store and she can pick it out herself. This was something we did many years ago, but she still remembers the experience and wants to do it again.
Sometimes, it’s giving the recipient a choice, which will ensure you are gifting something they actually want. And it would be prudent to set a budget that you are able to afford.
Neil Chacko on Devotion and Focus
As we are fully immersed in another holiday season of shopping and gift giving, it is especially important that we reflect upon the real reason for this season. Over 2000 years ago. God sent the gift of his only son to be the Messiah promised to His people, the savior to redeem us all from our sins:
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Christmas time is a wonderful time but it can also be a very stressful time. However, by keeping our focus on Jesus, we can be less stressed. Our family has enjoyed an Advent devotional that we do from December 1 to December 25 which reminds us to keep our focus on Jesus each day. In addition, we try to focus more on giving to those less fortunate. Our church conducts a Christmas toy drive where they collect toys for underprivileged children in our community and each member of our family donates a toy for this drive. The words of our Lord Jesus ring especially true this time of year:
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Acts 20:35
We hope that our experiences have inspired you or given you some ideas of how to lead your family during the Advent season! We pray that the peace of Chris is with you this season as we celebrate the greatest gift of all. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out to our advisors at the network should you need help with anything at all.
