“You have more than that!”
Each week at our 9:45 children’s Sunday school, we take up an offering. Right now, we are raising money for United Methodist Family Services, an agency that helps children and teenagers in need through foster care, adoption, and on-site education facilities.
Every Sunday, one of our children serves as “usher” and collects the offering. As the children sit in a large circle, the usher walks around to each child and holds out the basket. We have many children who reach out to the basket and try to take money out or who pretend to put money in. Sometimes, we wait while a preschool girl digs through her Frozen purse to find her three pennies. It’s often an interesting time. But this past Sunday was the best.
A boy who just finished Kindergarten was taking up the offering. He was doing a great job, walking calmly around the circle (he isn’t often calm). When he got to his little sister, he held the basket out to her. She is very new to Sunday school and was having a hard time being away from her mom. She put a coin in. He kept the basket in front of her. He pointed to her little change purse and said, “You have more than that!” She got upset and hugged her change purse to her chest. He persisted. We told him to move on, that it was OK. After Sunday school, she gave me twenty cents more.
I don’t think we’ll train our ushers in this technique for collecting the offering during worship. But maybe we should all remember this story when we are making our own offerings to God and God’s work in the world through Wright’s Chapel. There may be many reasons why we hold back from giving all that we can – monetarily, our time, our talents – but sometimes it just takes a little nudge for us to realize that we could give more. And usually it feels better to give than to hold back.