Clearing out the “Giving Tuesday” Temple

Am I the only one who finds the “Giving Tuesday” concept a whole lot of backwards? The culture dictates your Thanksgiving holiday weekend goes like this:

Thursday--“Thanksgiving Day,” gorge yourself out of gratitude. Scour the ads for what you “need” to buy, develop a strategy for getting to the stores at the stroke of midnight in order to ensure what you want to buy is available. Possibly even commence shopping before the leftovers are put away.

Friday--“Black Friday,” run yourself ragged with shopping. Let your greed run rampant, buying things for others that they may or may not want or actually need. Spend more than you anticipated, or just spend without giving it any thought whatsoever. Use a credit card to avoid facing the reality of how much you’re spending.

Saturday--“Small Business Saturday,” trip around your town with your not-quite-maxed-out credit card and purchase items from local “small” businesses to “maintain” your local economy. Pat yourself on the back because you helped keep your community strong. Keep spending.

Sunday--watch TV and football and create a plan for your next spending episode, allow the commercials to convince you that there are still things out there that you or your kids need, and they’re found online.

Monday--“Cyber Monday,” warm up that credit card again folks! There are ONLINE DEALS that are ONE DAY ONLY and you should not take time to think about them before you purchase them!

Tuesday-- “Giving Tuesday,” Okay, after 3 or 4 days of spend, spend, spend, it’s NOW time to give from what may or may not be left. (Nothing left to give? Oh well, maybe next year...)

People! This. Is. Backwards! From the beginning of time, God has asked for the firstfruits. Not the spoiled scraps of the leftovers.

Genesis 4:3-5 says, “Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.”

I am assuming that, somewhere along the line, God gave instructions about offerings made to Him, though it isn’t recorded for us to know for sure. Cain gave some from the soil, Abel gave from the firstborn of his flock--the best. We don’t get to know specifically what Cain’s offering was, but I suppose it wasn’t the best, and I assume his heart wasn’t really in it, based on God’s response. (1 Samuel 16:7—People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”) So while some may get upset about God’s  perceived “pickiness,” at the end of the day, He is Lord, he sees our intentions.

But I digress. My point here is to say that “Giving Tuesday” is backwards simply because it comes AFTER a bunch of selfish spending (even if you are buying for “others”) and encourages a “what’s left” mentality rather than a godly mentality of giving FIRST out of gratitude to God for all he has entrusted to us.

As someone who is working at modeling handling personal finances with God’s instructions as a guide, I find it really difficult to get excited about “Giving Tuesday.” Let's bump it up a week and  start the giving before all the spending. Perhaps that way we’d experience the satisfaction of doing good before we go out and make a bunch of foolish spending choices, and avoid making bad spending choices in the first place.

God doesn't want our leftovers. That's why He commanded—and told the Israelites to TEST HIM—that they bring the whole tithe (the first 10% of EVERYTHING) into the storehouse. (Malachi 3:10)

Messy

 

Yesterday while singing Gungor's song "Beautiful Things" I was struck by something.

The song's lyrics were placed over a series of photographs of a potter working at a wheel. The photos were all close-up pictures showing just the hands of the artist and the mass of clay being worked on. As I watched the pictures and sang the words, I noticed the hands of the potter.

They. Were. Filthy.

And there were a lot of pictures where it was nearly impossible to distinguish which was the pot, which was the excess clay, which was the hands of the potter, and sometimes where the wheel started.

Does the potter mind that it is so messy? No, because a potter knows that the mess is necessary to achieve the the final product. Whether the piece will end up in a museum, a showroom, or just in someone's cupboard, the mess is part of the process.

And when the pot is "finished," the potter steps back, wipes off the clay that got everywhere on him (if you've ever watched a pot being thrown, you know the clay gets on more than just the potter's hands), then goes and washes away whatever is left. The potter is clean again, and the creation is there, beautiful, ready for its intended use. The excess is taken away as the potter masterfully works to create what is intended.

It got me to thinking. God is right there in the middle of the mess. In the middle of MY mess. And He's getting messy right along with me.

Is the process painful? Yes, but all during the process His loving hands are surrounding me, keeping what I need and stripping away what I don't. And much of the time, I hope, where I stop and He starts is indistinguishable.

A nod to my creative & practical side

I've long been a fan of using a bag of rice heated in the microwave as a heating pad for whatever aches and pains one might have. The beauty of luscious heat on whatever random pain I may have and the ability to fall asleep with the "heating pad" on, because it isn't electrical to begin with!

So, recently I came upon a genius idea for making these little bags for practically FREE! And virtually no sewing either!

You know how sheets & pillowcases are starting to come in their own little storage sacks? I don't know about you, but for the life of me I can't refold the sheets small enough to fit them back into that bag for storage, but neither can I force myself to throw away such a handy little bag! (Are you starting to see where I'm going with this?) One use I've found for them is using them as a in-machine laundry bag for my delicates, the drawstring feature makes them perfect for this!

Now, on to the rice bag. First, turn the bag inside-out. This will ensure you have a lovely finished exterior when your rice pack is complete.

Now, fill the inside-out bag with 1 pound of regular old white rice.

Next, measuring approximately 1/2 way up on the filled bag, sew a straight seam across the width of the bag, sealing the rice in the bottom of the bag.

Now, turn the drawstring half of the bag over the rice filled end of the bag and cinch up the drawstring.

Voila! Now heat your little wonder of a bag for about 1-1/2 minutes on High in your microwave, place on the achy-sore spot, and relax! You won't fall asleep with a electrical heating pad threatening to catch on fire if  you use it while you sleep!

Beautiful Video of a Beautiful Day...

My handsome hubby...

Mark's sister, Karen, her husband, Craig, and their kiddos, (l-r) Mel, Nathan & Kelly

Seeing Hannah for the first time for the DAY...

Pastor Aaron Baart's message was beautiful.

Wedding party

Leaving through sparklers!

A few wedding pictures...for now...

Our cake decorator took these pictures and graciously shared them with me...  A bit of an explanation about  the characters on the cake, they are "nods" to our sweet ring bearer and flower girl

Fasting

This Lenten season I've been fasting. But not from food. From Facebook. 


It's odd, I do feel like I'm missing out. On information. On gossip. On stuff I'd like to know about. On stuff I'd rather not know about. On laughs. On prayer needs. On the everyday lives of my friends that I've become accustomed to hearing about.


And I wonder, honestly, if Jesus were walking the earth today like he did 2000 years ago, would he have a Facebook account? I rather think he would, but not for the same reasons I do. He'd be doing his proclaiming to the people about his true identity. And he'd receive comment after comment. If you were Jesus Facebook friend, would that change how you use Facebook?