The best part of our day was giving some of our freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies away as a thank you to a friend. Not surprisingly, E had a really hard time with it. First she didn't want too many cookies going in the bag. Then she wasn't really sure the bag shouldn't be in the freezer with the bag of cookies we were keeping. She was so funny guarding and keeping track of them.
I explained (more than once) why we were giving away the cookies and
how we should act when we did. When we finally arrived at our destination and it was time to deliver the cookies, she handed them over with the level of intensity we've come to expect from her.
I learned (unexpectedly) that I was teaching her about generosity. In my opinion, generosity is giving away something that matters to you. It doesn't strike me as particularly generous to give something meaningless to you, though the other person might still appreciate it. Giving is a wonderful thing and more people ought to get in the habit of giving, but I think generosity goes beyond just giving.
When I think of generosity in the future, I hope I can still picture my sweet girl holding the little bag of cookies to close to her heart and then handing them over so sweetly and seriously. That's what it means to be generous b/c those cookies mattered to her.
P.S.
yes, of course, she did get to eat some of them. So did her mommy.
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