This past weekend Glen suggested that God gives us stuff not only to bless us, but so that we can be generous and bless others. He challenged us to take some cash, put it in our pocket, and look for a chance to give it away.My 2 year old doesn't carry cash (or much of anything for that matter) in her front pocket, but had a chance to practice being generous in another way. Here's the story: We're at Joe Bologna's (our favorite pizza spot in Lexington) and have just finished eating. On the way out the door our daughter spots every parents' worst nightmare- the vending machines. By now we've learned that we need to bring in a quarter or two so that we can grant her request to engage these child magnets. (We've also learned that we can use this as leverage throughout the meal!)
So, we give her a quarter and she heads for the bouncy ball machine. After settling the coin in the right slot, she rachets the handle to the right and POP- out comes not one- but two bouncy balls. With a little coaching from us, she turns to the little girl behind her and gives her the extra toy that the vending machine gods had graciously provided.
Her new found friend's eyes lit up, as did her folks- since they didn't have to run back out to the car to get change now. Not too shabby for a toddler.
So, how about the rest of us? Have you taken Glen's challenge literally and carried some money around with you? If you gave it away, who got it and why? Have been generous to someone else in another way? Experienced someone ele's kindess unexpectedly?
2 comments:
I just wanted to share with you an experience I had this week. On Sunday after you gave us the challenge of putting $20.00 in our pocket, I remembered that was exactly what I had and I thought 'I CAN DO THIS'.
I work in a dental office as the assistant so I am in the back most of the time. On Monday I heard our receptionist talking with someone and just assumed it was our next patient. When I came back up front,she said 'the strangest thing just happened'. She explained a well dressed woman just came in and asked if we had any work she could do to earn $20.00 real fast----she was out of gas and needed to get back to Wilmore. I know my eyes must have been bulging our of my head as she told me this. I quickly ran to the door and looked for her, but could not find her.
I thought about this all afternoon and evening wondering why I missed her. Why was I not out front when she came in. What a coincidence that she asked for $20.00.
Later that evening as I was getting ready for bed, the phone rang and it was my husband's sister who lives in another city on a limited income. She began to cry and said she was running low on money this month and had not been able to get her medications from the pharmacy, because she did not have her co-pay. She asked if we could send her $25.00 for her co-pay.
Just then I understood why I had missed the lady at work, because God knew there would be another need for me to meet with my $20.00. This really touched my heart this week and showed me how God works.
I have been blessed! It truly is more blessed to give than to receive.
Strange, I often have to ask for a loan from my two-year-old. I had a chance to tell this story to some of the staff members, but will relay it here for those who don't get to experience the bliss of working with Glen and Fred.
We're trying to teach our children that God wants us to be generous, to not hold too tightly to the things of this world. That has been helped by my wife's dogged refusal to allow the children's playthings to remain on the ground after we've retired for the evening, often yelling out, "You'd better pick up your toys or I'm throwing them away!" Grace and Faith are six and four, respectively, and are well on their way toward understanding this concept, or so I thought. We've periodically cleaned up the area we refer to as the "play room" and find myriad toys we've not played with in quite some time.
These efforts have increased exponentially as we've prepared for a move to Lexington. After a frenzied cleaning session a few weeks ago, my wife asked for suggestions as to what to do with all of the toys we possessed that were not being played with. After only a small bit of coaxing, Gracie thought that the "poor kids" might like them, since they don't have anything. Our hearts melted as we gazed upon our eldest with a fair amount of pride and affection. Faith, the four-year-old, took a decidedly different approach. Her earnest response: "I know! Let's have a garage sale and sell our toys to the poor kids!" Needless to say, when the time comes for my kids to fight over who'll have to take care of me when I'm wearing diapers, I hope Grace loses. Or, with all the money she'll be making, Faith puts me in a nice home.
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