This boy...

My first born. My trial and error. This kid has been a challenge lately. Love him to bits but find myself losing patience and yelling more than I should. That's why I'm posting this - I have to get this story down so I can remember it when I feel I'm at my rope's end.

Mike and I decided in the Fall to start giving Liam an allowance. We give him $1 per year of age per month. So right now Liam gets $6 a month. We did this mainly so we could teach him about paying tithing, having savings goals, and also used it as a motivator to get him to do more 'grown up things' around the house. The first Saturday of the month is Allowance Day, and the first Sunday is Tithing Day. This past Sunday morning Mike sat down with Liam to help him fill out the tithing slip and get his tithing money together. We didn't get the tithing for him paid last month because of all the excitement of the holidays, etc. So basically Liam needed to pay tithing on $12.00. However, when they started counting the money, Liam decided that he wanted to give more. He wanted to contribute to several different funds listed on the tithing slip that interested him. In the end he ended up giving more than his last two months' worth of allowance.

Liam came upstairs to tell me how much was in his envelope. I asked him 'Are you really sure you want to give that much? You don't have to.' To which he replied, "I care more about the church than I do about buying stuff." Gulp. There was nothing I could say because, of course, he was right. What an example he is to me of wanting to help and caring more about helping others with his money than helping himself. It was a moment I never want to forget.