I remember several years ago,
Freddie and I were not long married.
We did not have any kids yet
and we both had professional careers.
{He still has a professional career.
I just have a more important one now than I did before.}
Anyway, every morning on the drive in to work
I listened to a popular morning radio show.
It was about this time of year
and the station was doing a promotion
where people would call in randomly with a "story"
of someone who deserved to be blessed somehow.
Well, this particular morning a lady called in with a heart wrenching story
about these two girls she passed each day at their bus stop as she left for work.
Apparently their mother had died
and they were being raised by their father.
But, she could not help but notice
that these girls had on the same clothes every day.
Can you imagine?
Freddie and I did not have a lot of money,
but, this story touched my heart,
so I carefully noted the girls' sizes
and headed to the store that evening.
I bought them each a full outfit from head to toe.
I was so proud of what I had chosen for them.
I hoped that they would really like what I picked.
The next day when I went to drop off the clothes,
I was informed that the radio station
had received a huge response to this story.
So much so,
that they had collected
a U-Haul truck FULL of donations for these girls!
I wonder how those kids felt when they opened the door
and saw an outpouring of love from their community.
I wonder how that dad felt
to be blessed by so many strangers all doing a part
to help him take care of his girls.
Did that day change that family?
Did it make them stronger in their faith,
stronger as a family, as individuals?
Did it inspire them to be more, to be better?
I think about those children.
The ones I never laid eyes on.
The ones that touched my heart and moved me to action.
Did they graduate high school?
Have they gone to college?
I wonder if one of them was prom queen or class president?
I will probably never know.
What I do know, is that God can take any gift I give
and use it to the glory of His Kingdom.
Somehow.
In ways great or minuscule.
It's not up to us just what He does with our giving.
But, we just need to know that He does use us.
We just have to be willing.
Maybe you cannot give financial or material gifts.
But we all have our own gifts of time and talent-
diverse and usable.
Won't you seek out an opportunity to sow a seed?
You never know just what might grow.
"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" Acts 20:35
"You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall no be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord you God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake." Deuteronomy 15:10
"Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him." Proverbs 14:31
"But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth." 1John 3:17-18
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