Author Titus Benton poured a pile of goldfish crackers in front of his five-year-old daughter, and the lesson he learned launched a book: Grip: Let Loose, Dig Deep & Take Hold.
Titus and his wife were talking about people in Haiti who did not have enough to eat following the earthquake of January 2010. Their daughter listened as her parents discussed what they might do to help meet the need.
She said, “Why doesn’t God just give the people what they need?”
Their little girl knew God was powerful and supplied her family with what they needed, so her question was one of honest curiosity, not doubt or judgment. She just didn’t understand.
Later, while they were preparing for a snack, Titus hit on an idea. From a package of yellow goldfish crackers, he gave his daughter a huge pile and took just one for himself.
They began to eat, but of course, he finished after one bite. Watching her eat one goldfish after another, he asked his precious little girl, “Why do you think God let me have one cracker when you have so many?” She looked but didn’t respond.
“Do you think it’s unfair that you have so many crackers and I don’t have any? I wish I had more to eat,” he said.
“Just get more out of the bag,” she suggested. But Titus shook the empty bag, and she saw there were no more.
The interaction continued a bit longer, and in the end, the five-year-old showed the character of one learning to live the giving life. Titus writes:
“Slowly, she reached down and grabbed a single goldfish. She pressed it between her index finger and the table and slowly scooted it in front of me. She repeated the gesture several times. Then, as she realized how much I appreciated her generosity, she scooped up a small handful of goldfish crackers in her chubby little palms and dumped them in front of me. I don’t even like those things that much, but I ate every one of them that night.”
Titus reveals the lesson he learned from this experience: “The problem was not God’s injustice. The problem was my clinched fist.”
As children of God, we seek to grow in generosity and obedience to the Lord. And as ambassadors of God’s Kingdom, we have a joyful responsibility to share what we have so generously received from the Lord. As you consider your life, maybe you’ll see that you’ve received an abundance of grace, encouragement, financial resources, love, time, mercy, skills, or hope. Whatever it is that you have received, how can you look to give it away?
To read the rest of Titus’s story and more encouragement on living a giving life, check out Grip: Let Loose, Dig Deep & Take Hold.
