Farm Fresh Blog

     If you don't like the direction our world is going, change it. Change it through our children. Change it for our children.

     The older I get and the more I see of this world, the more important I believe it is to understand that our future as a society lies in the hands of our children. If you want the world to be a kinder and gentler place, you can make it that way, one child at a time.

       I'd love to take credit for this idea, but I got in church. I simply twisted it to include The Blessing Box and make it fit my family. Grandbaby #1 is 4 years old. She is beginning to understand the concept of giving and blessings.  I took the idea of charity giving from the church and paired it with a tradition that can be passed down - The Blessing Box!

The box started out as a Whitman's sampler chocolate box from Walgreen's. (Hey! Don't judge people short on time and money!)  Anyway, I painted the box purple. Then I began a hunt for glue so I could stick on some sparklies that I've probably had stuffed in a craft box for 5 years (unopened!) I didn't have glue, so I stuck the sparklies in large globs of paint. (again, short on time and money!)

     I found a butterfly stamp and a world stamp, and some brown ink. Then I used an old bell, some old lace, and part of a horseshoe Christmas ornament. None of this cost money. I just wanted to make the box interesting to a 4 year old. It sparkled. It tinkled. And it was tied shut. What's not to love for a 4 year old?

She was pretty eager to get into that box. First the ribbon came off.

Then she pried it open.

  Inside she found . . .

A feather (found at the ranch!)

 Two bags of gold dollars (The bank still gives those out, but they are usually only used by toll booth commuters.) I included a bag for her and a bag for her little brother. (Just in case he was interested enough in her Blessing Box want to be included.)

The most important thing in the Blessing Box was this:

 She is an old Christmas ornament that I've probably had over 20 years. I got it from my mother. She's quite heavy. On her robe is a quote from Mother Teresa.

"We can do no great things - only small things with great love."

In the bottom of the box is an envelope.

 It already had a horse on it.

Inside the envelope I put two $5 bills.

Now here's the important part of the Blessing Box - she has to give away the $5 bills to someone else who needs them.

A 4 year old must think about the world around her and decide who needs that money the most. From an early age, she can learn the joy of giving, of being a blessing to others, of looking at the world around her and saying to herself, "Where can I help?"

The coins she can keep. In fact, she was most interested in the box itself, and the angel, and the feather, in that order. The money and coins were nice, but the box - well, it was a BLESSING BOX! That sucker had a lot more power than a humble chocolate box and some purple paint.

Lest you think she didn't get the message, I'll share this. We pointed at the cash and asked her, "What do you do with this?"

She looked at us like she was giving a tutorial and said,

 "You give that to someone who NEEDS it!"

So today as we all give thanks for the blessings we've received, I urge you to put down that second helping of turkey, and look around for ways you can spread God's blessings. Become the Blessing Box.

Note: In our family we've decided that every year at Thanksgiving, we'll give her another Blessing Box. The same angel ornament will be in each box, along with money that she is to give to someone else.