The week of December 3rd – During the month of December, your family will focus on the virtue of generosity. Each week you will gather together and reflect on how you can make a difference to someone else by being generous. Find a time this week to gather as a family, say a prayer, read or listen to a prompt, respond as a family to what you have heard and then act on the suggestion for the week.
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December Virtue Generosity: making someone’s day by giving something away
What is a virtue? A virtue is something that God does in us to change the world around us.
GATHER together in prayer
LISTEN through scripture; readings; stories; music; videos
RESPOND to what you have heard
ACT in service to what God is calling you to
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GATHER
Gather together as a family and pray this prayer:
Do Generous Things
(The Anglican Church of New Zealand, New Zealand Prayer Book, page 141)
Almighty God,
You give seed for us to sow,
and bread for us to eat;
make us thankful for what we have received;
make us rich to do those generous things
which supply your people’s needs;
so all the world may give you thanks and glory.
This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.
LISTEN
Watch this video which describes the December virtue of generosity: https://youtu.be/TdgwYkKQiyM
Have one person in your family read Luke 12:13-21 (The Parable of the Rich Fool).
This Bible passage can be found online at Bible Gateway via this link: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+12%3A13-21&version=NRSV
RESPOND
Today’s reading is a type of story Jesus often told called a “parable.” A parable is a simple story that takes something familiar – like a landowner who stores his grain – and uses that story to help people understand a difficult or unfamiliar idea. The great thing about a parable is that different people learn different things as they listen to it. There is no one right way to understand a parable!
In this parable, a rich man hoards all his wealth for himself thinking that he will be able to enjoy it for a long time. He is not generous and doesn’t share what he has with others. But the man dies and doesn’t get to use what he has accumulated. So, what was the point in him keeping everything for himself? Would you have done what he did? Would you have done something different? What do you think this parable is trying to teach us?
ACT
Generosity involves giving something away. Sometimes what we give is material – like gifts or food or clothes. Sometimes what we are generous with is not material – like our time, our attention, our kindness or our love. As a family, discuss what is easy for you to be generous with – what is easy to give away? Then talk about what is hard to be generous with – what is hard to give away? What do you think makes generosity easy or hard? As a family, pick one thing to give or do for someone else this week.
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Food for Thought – Quotes about gratitude
Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor. Proverbs 22:9 (Bible)
The man who dies rich dies disgraced. Andrew Carnegie
The generous man enriches himself by giving; the miser hoards himself poor. Dutch Proverb
Every man goes to his death bearing in his hands only that which he has given away. Persian Proverb