Living Font: Cheerful Giving

While preparing for our move to our new house last week, my husband and I found many things that we no longer needed from baby clothing to an old entertainment unit I had bought used in college.   We thought about holding a yard sale with the items that were worth a decent amount of money, and planned on donating the rest to a local women’s crisis center.  Just when I thought the idea of pricing, tagging, and organizing our “to sell” items was going to drive me to an early grave, a friend of mine told me about her mother-in-law’s year round project.  She has essentially turned her house into a warehouse, which she has filled with donated items.  Once a month she holds a now legendary yard sale, opening up her home to the community.  100% of the profits from these sales goes to Relay for Life.  I didn’t need to hear anymore – we filled our garage with donation items and smiled as bags filled with memories were taken away.

What allowed me to so easily let go of not only those items we once cherished but also the money we could have made from selling them was not only the pleasure of knowing their sale would go to a phenomenal cause, but also the realization that they were never really mine to begin with…

My pastor tells a great story that explains cheerful giving better than I could even begin to myself.  Apparently he has raised a family of Skittles lovers.  One day he stopped at a gas station with his youngest two kids, and they each asked for a bag of the yummy candies.  As they continued their drive, he asked them to share a candy with him.  They hemmed and hawed.  They avoided sharing.  They wanted to hold on desperately to their precious Skittles.  And that’s when he said this: “I’m asking you for one Skittle.  I gave you those Skittles.  I could fill this whole car with Skittles.  I could bury you in Skittles!  Who are you to deny me one Skittle?”

The God who blessed my life with prosperity in friends, family, health, and yes, material things, also demands that I give freely and cheerfully.  How could I deny Him who has given me all that I have?

Next month I’m taking the 30 Day Giving Challenge…will you join me?


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4 Comments

  • I love this Amy!!

  • I love that Skittles analogy. I think it’s so much easier to tithe, to give, to share with others, when we realize how everything we have in this life is truly a gift!

  • Beautiful post.

  • Thank you for this post! I have a lot of things that I have accumulated over the years (even toddler’s clothing, my youngest is now 8 y.o.!) and I’ve been keeping them thinking “I’ll sell this someday”. Now I know that I have to cheerfully and freely give them away. 🙂