Oh, the generosity of children.

My little one inspired one of those quickly-cover-your-mouth-with-your-hand smiles.

Elijah had mentioned a garage sale in our neighborhood as we drove through to stop by the library, pick up heirloom tomato plants from a friend, and head back home. I was pacing my day to be where we needed to be, measuring time as a momma on a mission to a play date with Jude’s favorite friend.

But in my back seat, something else was going on. Jude was churning over the idea of a garage sale. In the bigness of his heart, he was getting more and more serious, more and more noble by the minute. His craving to be generous and kind finally caught my attention when he asked with expedience in his voice:

“Mommy, can we go to the garage sale after the park? Because Daddy needs to get his red car in”

He sounded like a man on a mission. But I still wasn’t paying enough attention to his tone to realize it. Until my slow, bogged down mommy brain registered his words.

“You want to buy Daddy a garage so he can put is red car in?”

Despite my being in the driver’s seat with Jude directly behind me, my hand rose to cover the smile that spread from my heart to my face at his innocent benevolence. His sweet little voice replied,

“Yes, but I don’t think I can.”

Fear of Being Not Enough

The bigness and nobleness of his heart had a catch in it- he thought probably a garage would cost more than he could pay. He probably wouldn’t have what it takes to do the good thing that he had in his heart to do.

Garages aside, isn’t this true in life? Even as a child, there is this fear of not having what it takes.

God rises in our heart a desire to do something good, something generous. Then, pressing that desire down is the rationalization of why it couldn’t be. Why we aren’t good enough or don’t have the time or don’t have what it takes.

We want to give good things to our families, to our neighbors, to strangers who need the love of God. We feel we couldn’t possibly. And therein is the beauty of it.

The Goodness of Being Not Enough

If I learned anything from a little required reading book for missionary classes at college called A Spirituality of the Road by David J Bosch, it’s that:

The task of doing good that God may have for you will often seem too big and yourself and your resources too small an ill-quipped. This is the best place to give from. It is the place of worshiping God with your need and a sincere humble recognition of His enoughness.

Then, when any good results from the generosity of your meager, ill-equipped, not-enough-for-the-enormous-task-ahead-of-you life, you know that good was only possible by God’s grace. And He gets all the glory.

Your recognition of your need and appeal to God to meet that need is one of the best forms of worship there is.

If there is something good God has on your heart, seek Him for all it takes.

He is enough.

And in the end, if your resources come from Him, the glory goes to where it belongs in the end.

With Him, any desire to do good (however messy and imperfect it ends up being) can be transformed into a thing of beauty. A masterpiece of eternal value.

Sip Life Slowly and Enjoy It

This blog is written with you in mind. To nudge you a little closer to the One who made you. To challenge you to engage in your life more fully. To inspire you to pursue your priorities more wholly and holy. And to experience sheer delight along the way.

If you were encouraged by this, you might also like:

• Hold Regret For Ransom
• ThunderWolves are Real
• Seven Children’s Books that Inspire Perseverance and Grit

Picture Adapted from Photo by Kevin Wolf on Unsplash