Before I leave the topic of Christmas, I want to expound on some acts of generosity that my children did without any prompting from me.
They learned that some of their friends were not getting any presents for Christmas. So they bought them presents and made cards to send with them. We made several trips to the post office this year mailing presents to their friends.
I wanted them to make cards this year, but the ones that they enjoyed the most were the ones that came from their hearts.
Several of them spent their own money on presents for each other. We gave as a family to some needy families.
Garrett took his tooth fairy money to Walmart right before Christmas. As we walked in the doors he noticed the Salvation Army bell-ringer. He ran back and put one of his coins in the kettle. That kind of embodied the theme for us this Christmas. We were looking for chances to give.
Giving and Receiving
On another occasion while Gary was home, he took some of the kids to Walmart to get us a vacuum cleaner since ours quit. They bought some other things, too, so they needed two carts. As they waited in line to pay, a woman came up to Gary and asked if he was the leader of this clan. He said “yes” and she handed him a $25 Walmart gift card. Random acts of kindness. I saw them everywhere, and they made my heart glad. Imagine how God felt about it.
Sowing and Reaping – You can’t have one without the other.
"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller
