Charity

Okay. We have a tug-of war here.

Your parents, with more than enough resources to survive, looked at God's scripture about sharing, and looked at the plight of the poor, gave money to the poor, that you wanted to spend.

.

James 2:

I used to teach Sunday school years ago with a woman who would buy Sunday School students things they needed, like eyeglasses, if the families couldn’t afford them. 

That teacher took something away from her own child to help someone else’s child. 

Yep, she did.

 
Did her child resent her? Perhaps, if her child knew of it. 

Did she do the right thing? Is it possible she did the wrong thing? 

Can parents ever help others too much?
Let me dissect this issue a bit at a time.

 
The parents have earned the money. They own the money.

But...they have both legal and moral obligations toward their children first.

 

So, do they buy their children everything the kids want?

What about their child's classmate that wears shoes with holes and has no winter coat?

What kind of child could be happy when a classmate is so obviously lacking?

Let's create a parable using rescue puppies. 

When one adopts a dog, the hooman goes to the pound and often have many to choose from but take just one animal home. Some people are tempted to rescue more than they can provide for, then all the puppies wind up right back in the pound.

 

So, is it a bad thing if that adult that rescues one dog, and leaves many others behind,

occasionally drops off a bag of dog food at the shelter, to help feed the puppies still there? 

I don't think so. 

And I don't think it's a bad thing for American church adults to help needy kids have things like shoes or a Christmas box, etc.

If your parents gave you an impoverished childhood, then you need to counsel with someone about this, but please don't think that your parents were naughty for reasonable sharing.

Sort it out, what is reasonable and what isn't.

.

Consider 2 Corinthians 9: