Why do you sponsor a child?

Were you moved by a story told by a visiting missionary, or compelled by the image of a child with hopeful (or worse, dull) eyes wearing tattered clothes smudged with dirt?

Did you notice a child’s picture on a friend’s fridge and start asking questions? Did you start to investigate yourself, look at the amount per month to sponsor a child, and think “Eh, I’m sure I could spare that somewhere…”?

When I’m asked why I sponsor a child, I can come up with a dozen reasons, some of which are recounted above. Yet in writing out all of these things, I came to a startling realization: all of the reasons are centered on me.

I need to give more. (I can give more.) I need to learn to sacrifice. (I can sacrifice more.) I want my finances to reflect my beliefs. I need to focus on someone other than myself, even if just for a little bit.

Every single one of those sentences starts with I. Me.

On the heels of that realization came another one: what child sponsorship is all about is found in the name itself. The child must come first.

In the end, child sponsorship can't be about me. It can't be about the letters or cards I receive. It can’t be about a tax write-off or a tithe or a shift in my budget.

Child sponsorship can’t be about bragging rights – I sponsor two children, how many do you sponsor? – or bonus points with God. He doesn’t operate that way. If you don’t believe me, check out Isaiah 58:3-5. There God responds to the peoples’ indignation that their good deeds (fasting) weren’t drawing His notice.

I see your fast, God says in verse 4, and I’m not impressed. I see how you still do as you please. You sacrifice in some ways, but the rest of your energy is focused on yourself.

Ouch. I think I do approach child sponsorship like that, hoping these “holy deeds” will show others who I am and what I value. I am compelled by recognition in one form or another.

But God is compelled – grieved, really – that children are the innocent victims of the injustice of poverty. And He has equipped me – through finances in part but also through His Spirit – to move in response.

In the rest of Isaiah 58, God instructs us to act, respond, do. Break the chains of the oppressed. Feed the hungry, provide shelter to those without homes, be available to people in need.

Respond, God promises (in verse 8) and I will change you.

Respond, and your life turns around. Respond, and be healed yourself. Respond, and I will satisfy you in the driest of times. Respond and honor My ways, and you will find recognition as the rebuilder of walls and the restorer of homes. Do all these things, and then “you will find your joy in the Lord” (verse 14).

And so I respond through child sponsorship, and my motivation for sponsoring a child should be the child alone. To remove the burden of poverty off the back of a child, freeing them to pursue their God-given potential because that child is made in God’s image, and God’s heart is for them.

What happens in my life or what I receive as a result is just a bonus.

I write all this (preaching to myself) knowing that tomorrow is International Child’s Day. It’s actually one of many days declared by members of the international community to focus on the rights of children, on their wellbeing. And I am determined now, fueled by this conviction, to focus on my sponsored children alone.