A Christmas Gift.

A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.

Proverbs 22:8-10

A few weeks ago, Cody and I took his mom and step-dad out for their 20th anniversary.  As we were paying for parking at the un-manned parking booth, I looked down and saw a folded up twenty dollar bill.  I swiftly grabbed the money and thought to myself  shouted with excitement, "Its my lucky day"!  As we made our way into the restaurant, however, I began to fill a sort of tugging within.  Although I desperately wanted to keep the money, I began to feel convicted, almost as if God was trying to teach me a lesson about giving.  Still hesitant about these feelings, I gave the money to Cody for safe-keeping, knowing that if I kept it in my wallet it would get spent.  We both resolved that we would give the money to the church on the following Sunday.

We didn't make it to church that Sunday, though, and the money remained in Cody's wallet for another couple of weeks (he's so frugal!). 

Last week, a close friend of mine called to ask if I would be willing to make a piece of jewelry for her to give to her sister-in-law as a Christmas gift.  Of course I agreed, as I was excited and flattered that she had even asked.  She eventually decided on a piece that I already had made and we agreed that twenty five dollards was a fair price.

Last week I received a Facebook message from a friend of my mom's.  The friend explained that her nephew was recently diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia and that she was trying to collect canned goods and money for the family, since the illness left both he and his wife unable to work.  I passed the message along to my mom as the friend had asked. I started to read the friend's Facebook page since she was intermittently posting updates about her nephew.  After several days of reading the updates, I knew that there had to be something Cody and I could do to help this poor family.  Since my mom's friend and her nephew both live in rural Missouri, I knew that shipping canned goods would be very costly, so Cody and I decided that we would use the twenty dollars that I found in the restaurant parking lot to buy a WalMart giftcard.  I purchased the giftcard, placed it in a Christmas card and put it in the mail, hoping that it would get to the family in time for Christmas.

When we returned home from Cody's grandmother's yesterday, there was a check in the mail from my close friend who had ordered the necklace.  The check was made out in the amount of fifty dollars, despite the fact that we had agreed on twenty-five.  My friend PAID ME DOUBLE the price we agreed on!

Isn't it amazing how God works?  When we give from our hearts, God bestows his blessings upon us. 

We now have twenty-five dollars more than we planned on having, and God has once again placed a burden on my heart to give generously.

Don't get me wrong (and please don't think I am self-righteous), spending the money on a new pair of shoes, a new purse, or any number of things I could have spent it on would have been lots of fun; however, the lesson that God has taught me this Christmas season is worth more than anything tangible.  Litte did I know, finding that twenty dollar bill led me to the gift of a lifetime.

A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes other will himself be refreshed.

Proverbs 11:24-26