RONNIE WILSON’S GIFT

Published by David C Cook

4050 Lee Vance View

Colorado Springs, CO 80918 U.S.A.

David C Cook Distribution Canada

55 Woodslee Avenue, Paris, Ontario, Canada N3L 3E5

David C Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications

Eastbourne, East Sussex BN23 6NT, England

David C Cook and the graphic circle C logo

are registered trademarks of Cook Communications Ministries.

All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes,

no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form

without written permission from the publisher.

All Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright © 2000; 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

LCCN 2010940570

ISBN 978-0-7814-0477-8

eISBN 978-0-7814-0597-3

Text © 2011 Francis Chan

Illustrations © James Madsen

Published in association with the literary agency of

D.C. Jacobson & Associates LLC, an Author Management Company

www.dcjacobson.com

The Team: Don Pape, Kate Etue, Amy Kiechlin, Jack Campbell

Cover and Interior Illustrations: Jim Madsen

First Edition 2011

To my dear friend Ron Wilson ... a very wise old man

who still has the faith of a child.

Dear Parent,

Because you have this book in your hands, it is pretty safe to assume that you care a lot about your child’s relationship with God. When my first child was born, I remember carrying my little baby around the house regularly and praying the same prayer over and over: “God, please have her fall in love with You!” Sound familiar?

It is now fifteen years later, and during those years the Lord has blessed me with three more children. A lot has changed in my life, but what remains the same is my tremendous concern that my children walk with Jesus. I still pray for them daily. In addition to that, I take seriously my responsibility to teach them and to live in such a way that they learn about Jesus just by watching my life.

It is our responsibility as parents to be the primary teachers of God’s Word to our children. Too often, parents depend on Sunday school teachers, youth pastors, or counselors to train up their children. While God will use others to influence our kids, it is His design that we parents are the primary teachers (Deuteronomy 6:4–25; Ephesians 6:4). You probably noticed that I began the story with Ronnie amazed by the gospel, but I did not explain the gospel at that point. I did this in order to give you the freedom and responsibility to explain the story of Christ to your child. Jesus and the apostles shared the good news differently based on the audience. Since you know your children best, you would probably do the best job teaching them the gospel.

God calls parents not only to talk about Jesus, but also to live like Him (1 John 2:6; 1 Corinthians 11:1). As the old expression goes, “Most lessons are caught, not taught.” Our kids are watching us and will remember our actions more than our words. I hope you use this story as a teaching tool for your children, but they will learn the greatest lesson as they watch their parents give generously. My kids have seen my wife and me give to the poor, and they looked on with amazement as they saw the blessings of God that followed. This is the type of lesson they won’t soon forget. I pray that as you teach your kids this invaluable lesson of giving generously, God would give you the faith to live it out. Then your kids will see just how blessed we are when we give.

“Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed” (Proverbs 19:17).

Serving with you,

Francis