Homeless bags
How do you say no when your 4 year old asks to make homeless bags?
Well, you don’t… thirteen lunches are ready to go until we by more bags.
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Hi Sharon,
What does Therese pack in her bags? How long do you keep them in the car? A friend and I have recently been discussing how to address the issue of panhandlers with our 2 & 3 year-olds.
JEN
Food for the body: we pack Vienna Sausages, chips, something fruity (like apple sauce or fruit cocktail), something sweet (like granola bars or those gummy fruit snacks), and water.
Food for the soul: we pack them a holy card, and a miraculous medal. Today we also started making rosaries for them too.
Our God daughter Lindsey made a half page resource list of places they can call for help. So we pack that too.
We usually leave only a few bags in the car at a time during the summer…but we can go through them rather quickly on days when Therese insists that we loop back around and give the homeless a bag.
When we see the homeless, I remind the kids that for whatever reason they are there, they need our prayers and we’ll say a Hail Mary on the spot. I try to remind the kids that we are considerably more blessed…we have a roof over our heads, food on our table, a family, daddy has a job, and our faith–a hope in God our loving Father. Finally, I tell the kids that we should share our blessings, including our faith–which is why we put the religious things in the bags.
We started doing this a couple of years ago and at the time it didn’t seem like she really “got it.” But in that time, I’ve seen her really develop a heart for doing this. And she the voice of conscience when we see them and we’re out of bags, “Mom, we need to make more homeless bags.” It’s very sweet.
Too funny! I have been out of bags for awhile and finally quit procrastinating and made some new ones this past weekend. It’s been funny, though. When I didn’t have any bags in the car, I seemed to have plenty of opportunities to pass them out. Now that I’ve been driving around for a few days with my new stash, I have yet to be able to pass any of them out! But I have them ready to go!
That’s so awesome that Therese wanted to make some bags and is getting into it. Yay!
That little Therese has such a giving heart…cultivated by two loving and very giving parents. I love you Gretencords; you’re pretty special to us!
Sharon, you brought me to tears! You are such a special daughter and I thank God for you; I thank Him that you are my son’s wife and the mother of my grandchildren. You are a wonderful role model and a loving servant of Christ. God bless you!!!
[...] to share the almsgiving portion with you. I got the idea from my friend Sharon. She has been making goody bags for the homeless for quite some time. She keeps them in her car and when she sees a panhandler (which we have a lot [...]