On the act of charitable giving, humility, receiving gifts, and thanks to God.

In Mark 12, Christ discussed what are the most important commandments. He answered, for all to hear, ”Hear, O Israel, The Lord, our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)

             Now let me ask you this. If you truly did love your neighbor as yourself, then you would wish to give to everone fairly and generously, wanting for yourself no more than everone else. After all, wouldn’t you do the same for your own family members?

Generosity Encouraged 

             “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written:
       “They have scattered abroad their gifts to the poor;
       their righteousness endures forever.”

            Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.  You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. (2 Corinthians 9:6-11)

Now more than ever, food banks need our donations of food and cash. Please Give.

God Bless.

And I thought I suffered hardship.

My confession. Over the past eight years now, I’ve been learning, first hand, what mental illness is, the consequences of addictions, how the tearing down of my strength and will, all I held dear, divorce, family separation, major rapid weight gain due to essential medications I can’t do without, chronic unemployment, and how all this actually serves a much greater good and turn all my losses into gains.

While I’m choosing right here not to go into the details of traumatic events I’ve gone through since my first psychotic episode, if even to save space, it truly, deeply, humbles me to think how much many millions of people have lost in comparison.

I’m talking about the losses of children, families, villages, and countries have faced and are now, more than ever, facing because of widespread crop failures overseas, re-allocation of crop to supply demand for bio-energy fuels, food shortage, no access to clean water, loss of family caregivers due to devastating hunger and epidemic…

Man have I been lucky.

While I won’t speak for everyone in my country, I am truly so thankful for my life, which is not that bad, and that I still have both parents who love and give everything they have to see to the successful raising of my generous, sensitive, faithful and caring seven year old son, and still make strong efforts to see that I am not lonely or suffering in my place…

It honestly breaks my heart to think of what my life or the life of my son would be like without their care, and even moreso the helplessness I feel when I see on television line-ups many hundreds of starving people long, in remote villages, when each of them are waiting hours for no more than a bowl of nutritional oatmeal, and I can’t even afford to donate $10 without giving up some precious aspect of my daily life.

What a spoiled people we are!

Heaven FORBID we go without our internet, coin laundry, or buying yourself that 55″ television you really can’t do without.

That’s sarcasm if you didn’t catch it.

The hardships I’ve gone through have taught me an abundance of lessons over the years. One important lesson that I think should be shared with everyone is this: 

The hardships only make you stronger if you learn a lesson and grow from them.

But even more important, is this.

It simply does not matter, in the true scheme of things, if your yard has the best trimmings or if your foyer or dining room has the best chandelier… image is just that, and how much money you have is not even substantial to ensuring the safety of your family or the lessons you impart behind.

At least not in our country.

Truly, truly, what is more important to you? Think about this… will you feel better about yourself if you have the prettiest house on your street, inside and out?

Or if that $1000 you could have spent on tile flooring actually fed three hundred hungry people a hot bowl of nutrition each day for 3 months?

You are already as beautiful as you can be on the outside… which choice of those two do you think makes you more attractive on the inside?

There are thousands of missionaries spreading the God’s soul-saving Love by filling hungry bellies and ministering to hurting people in hundreds of the most remote and hard-hit of famine-stricken lands in Asia, Africa, South America, and everywhere else that hunger and suffering exists. Don’t you wish you could help them?

If your answer is yes, I highly recommend you visit this site: www.LifeToday.org

Please… throroughly examine that website.  Learn about the founders of Life Outreach International.  Find out how their ministry of humble beginnings has evolved to become world-changing…

That site again is  www.LifeToday.org  …  They have staff ready to take your calls right now. You can donate from a credit card if you want or $30 once a month right from your bank account. This goes right to helping the missionaries acheive their purposes… and they need that help, right now. If they don’t have enough money to do their job, someone else might die who doesn’t have to, and fewer souls will be won to life-saving Love and Word.

www.LifeToday.org

Me, I’ve been through much, and money’s barely there, but hey, I’m blessed. I’ve got loving family, adaquate shelter, medical care, food in my fridge, and more, much more to be thankful for. Many thanks to living in a rich, developed country with social aids.

Shed your pride.  Help the lives who truly need it.

Please. I’m asking for the child who is near dying of starvation… if she is saved, she may grow up to change the world for her generation.

www.LifeToday.org

“Godly people give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will never be forgotten.” (2Corinthians 9:7-9)

“Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor.” (Proverbs 22:9)