I’m starving.

I’ve said it more times than I can remember. My kids say it on the daily.

I’m now consciously not saying it and having conversations with my kids that they actually don’t understand “starving”. (Thankfully, and by God’s grace.)

Volunteering for Feed My Starving Children has become my favorite way to serve with my family. There aren’t a ton of organizations that allow children to volunteer, and for good liability and safety related reasons. Yet, kids 5 and older can help with FMSC.

And man, they have this down to a science. (Plus cool hair nets.) Not only a science of what combo of rice, soy, vitamins, and veggies are needed to make a meal to nourish malnourished beings, but also the assembly line process down to the weight of each Manna pack and how that correlates to the weight of each box with 36 packs to know all is correct and ready to ship. Nutrition and math for Jesus. Love it!!

It’s about a 2 hour time commitment, with a little over an hour of fast paced work. This seemed long to my 6 year old, but in the scheme of her day, she was fine. It’s a great conversation to have when the kids are getting tired that we need to work just a little more to save a few more kids by making their meals. And FMSC has done an amazing job of making the packing fun by encouraging teams to make up names and chants to do when another box is finished all while jamming out to music.

To take things a step further in teaching your kids, I read a book called Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World. Fairly quick read and totally worth it for those of us who have never actually been “starving”. (Nod your head here.) I highly recommend you grab it. The author gives some other great, and fairly easy, ways to help teach our kids the art of being grateful.

Even for the good we eat. A suggestion is to eat only beans and rice for dinner one night a week or month. This can give kids a sense of what most of the world eats on a regular basis.

Another idea on teaching gratefulness I will throw in here came from my sister-in-law. Many of you are familiar with talking with your children about a high or low they have during a day. Well, she takes it a step further and also asks about what they were grateful for that day. My kids struggled at first to think of something. But I’ve really tried to impress on them that there has to be something that they are thankful and grateful for that happened every day. Because God does bless us daily. Same for adults, being grateful is almost a habit that needs to be practiced and formed.

Perspective in life is huge. And while we all want the best for our kids, teaching them how incredibly blessed and fortunate they are to have food every day and how to help and serve others, really is an amazing thing you can do for them as a parent.

Embrace Life

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