Putting Her Sister First

If we teach our children anything, I hope it will be to show kindness for one another, and to learn to reciprocate unselfishness. Our oldest daughter Elizabeth was working to save her pennies for a Barbie doll. She has a passion for designing doll clothes, and she uses specific dolls as mannequins as she builds her designs.

We pay our kids a small sum each month, to teach them to save and budget. They earn their money by doing special chores in addition to their normal family responsibilities. Leaving an exceptionally messy room, missing the bus, or leaving objects in clothing ready for the laundry results in a small percentage being taken from their pay. So they work hard to earn each dollar.

She had almost saved up enough to order her doll when she walked into my office one day. For the past three years, her younger sister Carina had been requesting a certain doll for Christmas. It was a collector's edition with a red flowing dress. Each year the doll itself changed, but the red dress was always in the request. The doll was outside our budget, so we hadn't ever bought it, nor could we condone her spending that much on a doll.

Elizabeth came in and shut the door. Then she stated, "I want to use my Barbie money to get Carina a doll for Christmas." Her plan was to buy one of her favorite Barbies, design a red dress, place it on the doll, then wrap the doll for Christmas. In fact, she had already sketched the design, and found the fabric. She said, "It will make me more happy to see her face than it will to get a doll for myself. I want to do something nice for her, something that she'll never expect." So we executed the plan.

Christmas morning was one of the best we'd ever experienced. The presents were opened and exclaimed over, but more important was the feeling Elizabeth's act brought into our home. Yesterday, as I gathered laundry from Carina's room, I noticed her doll among the treasures on her dresser. She hadn't just laid it down, or tucked it away with her other toys. This doll, posed carefully, hair brushed, had obviously taken a place of honor.