It started with a girl and a graph.
When Jess Steinbrenner's daughter, Lisel, began paying close attention to Blacknall's monthly financial dashboard — the kind of attention, Jess says, that kids tend to give to things adults have learned to overlook — it opened conversations in their home. Jess and her husband, Trig, began talking with their children about giving and how it has shaped their lives at church and at home.
“Kids have a wonderful way of prompting us to have hard and good conversations about things that adults might rather not touch at times,” Jess said.
In a testimony of giving this past Sunday, Jess traced the thread of generosity across her life: a childhood shaped by parents who loaned their van and pulled nails from strangers' houses, a young adulthood shaped by friends who became family, and now two elementary schoolers asking questions about money she can't dodge.
“I'm going to encourage us to return to Jesus's words,” she said. “To have hard conversations with each other and be led by everyone, from the littles who maybe have an eye out for things that we don't pay attention to, and the people who have been longtime members and have walked with God for a long time and have learned a lot about giving faithfully.”
Watch Jess’s testimony of giving below and explore ways you can give.