Everywhere around us people are infected with the me me me syndrome. They want it their way, in their time. We have become a world of selfish people. It is a world of companies offering to donate to causes if they get something out of it like you buying their products, a world where people expect to be given a shirt, a gift card, tickets to a movie etc to give blood, or canned goods to those who need food. Seems like it is becoming harder and harder to find people who give with expectation of nothing in return but that amazing warm feeling you get when you help.
Not so long ago, when I was growing up, you did things for others without any expectations. You shoveled your neighbors walk because they were 85, you raked leaves not for money but for the joy of jumping in them, you offered to help and meant it.
So at this point you are thinking, ok she is rambling, the title of this entry is raising a selfless child so where is the child raising part? I am getting to it, I promise.
Today my 11 year old and her Bestie had a lemonade stand. Something so very simple and something that has been done for oh I don't know the last 100 years or something. They did it to raise money for Oklahoma. They wanted to help people they have never met, will never meet and can offer them nothing in return. They raised $30.00 and were so proud you would think they had just made $30,000.
To me, the ability to raise a selfless child starts with being or at least trying to be a selfless parent. Bella and I were in the parking lot at Kroger one day. A man came up to us with a story about having his kids with him and running out of gas and it was going to cost him $10 to buy a gas can because the gas station wouldn't loan them out and then he would have to buy gas. Those of you who know our family know we live paycheck to paycheck. Like most people in this country live that way. But that day I had $15 in cash and I gave it to the man, wished him luck and we walked away. He offered to send me a check or bring cash back to me later and I said no that was ok that he should just pay it forward when he could and off we went to go Krogering. As we got farther away from the man and closer to the store Bella said something that broke my heart. She said that she wouldn't have given him anything because he was probably lying. That people were liars and would tell anyone anything to get what they wanted. It made me so sad. I told her that it didn't matter to me if he was telling the truth or not, that was between him and God. What was important to me was to be a helper. If I could help someone I should. God calls on us to be helpers.
So that is where you start. That is where you start raising a selfless child in a selfish world. You teach them to be helpers. We were taught that and it is our jobs to teach that to our children. Teach them to give. Give of their time, their money if they can, mostly to give expecting nothing in return.
