The love of money

Pete, my 3 year old son, loves coins. He has a Huskers piggy bank, and one of his favorite things to do is to dump it out and then put all of the change back in it. Nothing brightens his day like a handful of pennies and nickels to add to his collection. I'm pretty sure he has a vague idea that you can use change to buy things because he likes to take quarters along to the mall, where they have a train set that will run for a minute or two if you feed it $.50.

Recently, I've been giving Pete a few coins before church, and when the time comes he puts his money into the offering plate. This is all pretty exciting because, like the widow's offering, it is rather costly to Pete. He doesn't have much to give, but he gives it all.

A few Sundays back, after he had parted with three dimes and a penny, I was telling him how proud I was of him. I explained that when we give money to the church we are participating in the work of the church, how his offering will be used toward making things "on earth as it is in heaven," and that the church would use the money for all sorts of wonderful things.

"Like buying doughnuts?"

"Yes, son, like buying doughnuts."

But, all is not lost. Yesterday, while cleaning the house, Amanda came across three quarters (Pete's favorite!). She gave them to him and he scampered off toward his room, where his piggy bank resides. A moment later he returned and gave the money back to his mother, along with a simple explanation. "We need to give this money to Jesus."

Come Sunday, you better believe Pete's daddy is going to get him a handful of doughnuts.