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Generosity: Homemade Gifts

December 7, 2011 in Attitude, Blessed, Change, Generosity, Joy, Love, Raising Children, Worry with 0 Comments

“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.” Burton Hillis

So many people are stressing about Christmas. What gifts to buy, budgets and will it be enough? I too have been a part of the group stressing about Christmas and budgets. But why? Does it honestly matter if I spend a lot of money on a gift or take the time to make something from scratch? Don’t they both say that I love the person it is going to and spent time thinking about something unique to give them? I’m sure I am not the only one to believe that Christmas has become commercialized and that retailers have made it into a great way for people to spend more than they usually would or can afford just to buy for loved ones. It’s not about the gifts. But the commercialized side of Christmas can make that point hard to remember.

Every other commercial right now is a holiday one with new sale prices, new gadgets and special holiday hours. It’s hard trying to stay balanced and not be taken in by it all. Chase and I have talked more than once about what we want to do to be able to make sure that our family has a fun Christmas every year but also with out it being all about the gifts. One thing I know that we have talked about doing is a special Christmas donation every year to our sponsor child we have through Compassion International. Hopefully this will be a good start to keeping the focus more on others and not so much on ourselves. Of course Eli is only a year old so we have plenty of time to come up with more traditions for our family.

I am by no means trying to be negative or a downer. We want to celebrate and enjoy Christmas just as much as everyone else. I just hate when we get stressed about what we will buy everyone. I don’t want to forget that Christmas is not all about the gifts, but that we should celebrate Jesus’ birth and show His love to every one we meet! So this year one thing we are doing to be a little less commercialized is we are brainstorming ideas to do more homemade gifts with a lot of love built-in!

Photo Credit: Shimelle Laine

Raising Compassionate Children

November 10, 2011 in Change, Generosity, Love, Raising Children with 0 Comments

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ’It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35 (NIV)

Last night Chase sat down to write a letter to our child we sponsor. A few years ago we signed up to sponsor a child through Compassion International and I am so glad we made that decision. I love when we get letters from our sponsor child! I love hearing about what is important to him and I love seeing the drawings he sends us every time! This morning Chase and I were talking and I told him how eventually when our kids get older I want to sponsor a child for each of them. I want to teach them early on the joys of giving, caring for others and making a difference. With so many influences in our kids lives what better way to truly teach them that it is better to give than to receive. It will be so fun when we all sit down as a family to write to the children that we sponsor and then when we sit down to read the letters we get back. I also think this is a great way to teach our children that they do not have to be a grown up to help others or to make a difference. Sure they may not be “paying” for the sponsoring, but the prayers they say and the letters/drawings they do is just as important! Right now we have one child we sponsor and I look forward to the day that we get to sponsor more children!

Accountability: Changing My View

August 9, 2011 in Accountability, Change, Generosity with 0 Comments

“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.” Proverbs 22:7 (NIV)

“If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” Dave Ramsey

My husband and I have never been bad with money. We have made a few bad choices… but who hasn’t? We learn from these lessons and move on. Any time Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey has been offered at our church Chase and I always felt like we already knew what it was about, we manage our money and we don’t have a bunch of credit cards so we don’t need to go. Last weekend Chase told me that he feels like we should be more serious about it. We have been working to be debt free but haven’t necessarily done it the Financial Peace way. Now we are. Thankfully we do not have much debt, but we want to be able to get to the point where we have the freedom to do with our finances what God wants… the ability to give generously when He prompts us and the ability to truly be good stewards of what He gives us. I think because we have been working on paying things off on our own made us feel like we didn’t have to take the suggestions of others. But, God changed our heart. We don’t want to go about life acting like we know everything, Financial Peace has worked for so many people making them completely debt free. I know that we will get there! We will be able to look at our finances and truly have the freedom He intends, to give as He intends… instead of being tied down to a monthly payment. We have begun our journey to being debt free!

Worship Song Friday: Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath

April 15, 2011 in Generosity, Love, Worship with 0 Comments

“Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.” 1 Peter 3:8 (NIV)

“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” Romans 12:15 (NIV)

Todays worship song is Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath. I love this song! I know that I have found myself praying something similar to the message of this song, compassion. I have prayed for more opportunities to show love and compassion to those in need, to notice the need when it is there. With how busy our lives get it can be easy to have our own little bubble and forget about the outside world, forget about the needs of others. I truly want to change this! Today lets look for the people who cross our paths that we can show His love to!

Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath

Looked down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touched down on the cold black tile
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me your heart for the once forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see
yeah .. yeah .. yeah .. yeah

Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide whats underneath
There’s a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
To ashamed to tell his wife
He’s out of work
He’s buying time
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

Chorus

Top 10: Volunteer And Make A Difference

March 23, 2011 in Generosity, Top 10 with 0 Comments

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40 (NIV)

As Christians we are not supposed to just go to church and then go home. The church is not truly meant for us. We are to be the church for those who need to hear God’s word. Many of us find our selves in a routine of going to church and coming home and that’s it. How many of us get involved? I know with as busy as our schedules are, it is hard to find time to buy groceries let alone volunteer. But, we are supposed to reach out to those in need. I have made a top 10 list of ways to volunteer either from home, or short time framed opportunities that will work for most moms! It doesn’t matter what we do as long as we get involved and show our kids first hand how fun it is to help! Find what you are passionate about and start there. That way volunteering wont feel like a chore. We must make a difference in our communities, God will bless us for doing what He has asked!

Find an organization you support and see if they need help running their blog
Make phone calls for a non-profit
Help get envelopes ready for mail outs
Be a greeter at your church (you are already there and the kids can join in!)
Take your kids with you to your local food bank and sort food
You and your kids can make cards for local vets and residents of nursing homes (it really brightens their day!)
Volunteer with a hospitality ministry where you cook meals for families who have had a birth or loss in the family (these ministries are also easy to start if your church doesn’t have one, get a bunch of volunteers and you only have to cook a meal once a month or so because you all take turns!)
If you are artistic or creative in any way non profits and smaller ministries would love to use your abilities for websites, flyers and events
Go through your closets and clean them out! There are lots of non profits that will distribute the clothing to those in need
Need a way to start off simple and work into bigger volunteer options? Start by sponsorship. You can sponsor children and families in lots of different organizations to provide things like food, clothing, school supplies, a job and much more!

It doesn’t matter what you do, we just need to get out there and make a difference! If you still don’t know where to start I have listed a few non profits that I really believe in and you just might too! Go and be Jesus to the world!

Give A Goat

Compassion International

Invisible Children

Charity Water