Bible Stories for the Young
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One time Jesus was teaching about how to be a giver.
He said, “Be careful that you don’t make a show of doing good things just so that other people will see. If you do that, you won’t get any reward from your Father in Heaven.
“So when you share, or give someone a gift, or do something kind for someone, don’t be loud and proud about it. (‘Ta-dah! Look at me, I did this good thing.’ Or, ‘Look, I shared.’) No, that’s what the phonies do when they’re trying to pretend to be ‘good’. But that’s not for you.
“If others notice and are impressed when you give, then that little, earthly reward of someone knowing is all the reward you will ever get.
“So when you give, or do something kind, or share, be so quiet about it that your left hand doesn’t even know what your right hand is doing! That means, let your gift be a quiet, special, secret gift for God alone.“
How quiet would you have to be to not let one hand know what the other hand is doing? Sometimes when you share or are kind you have a lot of friends around you, don’t you? Your friends might even be as close as that other hand of yours. That means you might have to be really quiet or really gentle or really quick for your other hand (or your friends!) not to notice you are giving, right? Of course, that doesn’t mean you’ve failed if someone sees you, or that you should only be kind if no one is near by! What it really means is that’s how quiet and gentle and quick your heart should be about your choice to give. Shhhhh! Take as many chances as you can to have a heart like that whether your friend ends up knowing you did it or not.
“And when you do give quietly,” Jesus said, “then your Daddy in Heaven, who sees what is done in secret will give you His special, special reward.”
Do you understand what Jesus is saying? He said that when you give, if you want someone to notice so that you can feel proud about yourself or look good to other people, then that little reward of someone noticing will be your only reward. Or even if you just congratulate yourself in your own mind to make yourself feel good, then feeling good is the only reward you will ever get for that nice little thing you did. You see? It’s about what’s going on in your heart.
Give in a way to only honor God, not yourself, by giving quietly and secretly with no drama — just because you love the other person and love God.
And if you live like that, then God Himself will give you a special reward. Wow! We wouldn’t want to miss a reward from God, would we?! Don’t you think a reward from Heaven would always be better than a reward on earth? I do.
You can trust that your Father in Heaven sees you, and that you don’t need to run after earth’s Ta-dahs. His rewards are better — guaranteed.
