Gift Giving - From the Heart!

Consider the gifts you give to family and friends.    How many of them are cheaply made in a factory overseas or thoughtlessly purchased just so you can mark someone's name off a shopping list?   

Have you given any thought to the genuine needs of people in your community?    How about giving gifts produced by American hands in  your local community?

Below is a list I received, edited, added to, and re-posted on Facebook.   I've updated it for my Titus Two Friends, too.


Start a new Christmas tradition!

Think outside the box.  Who says a gift needs to fit in a shirt box wrapped in Chinese produced wrapping paper?

·         Everyone gets their hair cut.  How about gift certificates from your local hair salon or barber?

·         Gym membership?  It's appropriate for all thinking about health improvement.   

·         Who wouldn't appreciate getting their car detailed?  Small, American-owned detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a book of gift certificates.

·         Are you an extravagant giver who plunks down the Benjamins on a Chinese-made flat-screen TV?  Perhaps your gift recipient would like his driveway sealed or lawn mowed for the summer or driveway plowed all winter or games at the local golf course.

·         There are a gazillion owner-run restaurants -- all offering gift certificates. And, if your intended isn't the fancy eatery sort, what about a half dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint or Mom & Pop diner.

·         How many people couldn't use an oil change for their car, truck or motorcycle, done at a shop run by an average American working guy?

·         Thinking about a heartfelt gift for Mom?  Mom would LOVE the services of a local cleaning lady or maybe a spa package.   What about a houseplant from the florist?

·         Computers need a tune-up.  Some young guy near you is struggling to get his repair business up and running; ask the 20-somethings you know for names.

·         Something more personal.  Local crafts people spin their own wool and knit or weave scarves.  Crafters make jewelry, pottery and beautiful wooden boxes.  Attend a craft fair in November.  

·         Plan your holiday outings at local, owner-operated restaurants and leave your server a nice tip.

·         How about going out to see a play or ballet at your hometown theatre. Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.

·         Do you REALLY need to buy another ten thousand Chinese lights for the house?  When you buy a $5.00-string of lights about fifty cents stays in the community.  Rather . . . leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice BIG tip.

·        Holiday meals?  Purchase locally grown food like honey or canned fruit or veggies or specialty jams at the nearby orchards or farms.

·         Give a gift certificate to a local farm so your recipient can buy eggs or meat.

If your gift recipient lives across the country, use the internet to locate his community, then google  businesses there.   Give a gift-certificate from the local grocery or hardware store, barber, spa, florist or golf course.    

Gift-giving is a way to encourage American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams.  When we support American hometown businesses, we care about our communities and the benefits come back to us in ways we could not imagine.
 
Start a new American Christmas tradition!!   

Love your neighbor as yourself

Galatians 5: 14 NIV

Your Heritage as a Mother

 

This is Part 2 of "Leaving a Legacy"

What are your priorities for your children?  Do you want them to be good students?  Good athletes?  Popular?  Friendly?   Like-able?   Smart?   Cute?  Neat and well-dressed?   Logical?   Strong?   To keep their rooms clean?   To be safe drivers?   To get a scholarship to a good college?

Do you consider their spiritual education when you make your plans?   Is their spiritual future MORE important to you than anything else?   If not, it should be--if you want to leave a Godly Legacy.

What IF you died tonight?   How will your children remember you?   Will you be remembered as the mom who spent time every day reading her Bible, who prayed with them and taught them God's Word?  Or will they remember that you put on pretty clothes on Sundays but the rest of the week God was never a part of your life?   

Are you leading by example?  Do you PRIORITIZE your life so that GOD always comes first?   Do you arrange your life so that Bible reading (God speaking to you) and prayer (you speaking to God) is the FIRST and most IMPORTANT part of your day?   Do you STUDY the Bible along with your children?  


Do you allow sports or work to take priority on Sunday morning? 

Do you squeeze church "stuff" in around the children's activities?

Do you skip church to take children to PLAY games?  

Do you strenuously object to organizers who schedule games and children's sports on Sunday morning?   

Do your teens know that "nothing takes precedence over family attendance at church" so when they get a job they can tell their employer "I can't work on Sunday mornings." 

Do they know this?    They won't know if you've never made it clear that this is a priority with YOU!

Check YOUR attitude . . . 

Do you groan on Sunday mornings when the alarm goes off? 

Do you set your alarm so you get there on time to emphasize to your children the importance God has in your life?  

Do you eagerly arrive at church?  

Do you STAY for Bible class and Sunday School?  

Are you disappointed if Bible Class is cancelled? 

Do you run errands while the 

children stay for Sunday School?   

  

Do you show interest in the people at church?

Do you notice visitors and make them feel welcome?

Do you volunteer to help?

Your children are little sponges - absorbing what you say, what you do, how you act or re-act.   

Yes, indeed, you are living your life under a Mom Microscope.  

Mom, your children are the most important JOB you will ever "do" in your life.   And your attitude toward Bible reading, prayer, Bible study and church is a MAJOR factor in how your children will spend eternity.   That is WAAAY more important than anything and everything else including their sports, their grades, their college, their jobs, their friends, your grocery shopping, your home & all its pretty decorations, your career.  ANYTHING!  EVERYTHING!

I know you're busy.   So, be creative. 

MAKE TIME.   

• Check your priorities.    Limit the number of activities you allow (they won't die if they're not in everything!).    Make them chose between their favorites.   Don't "add" something unless you "edit" something else.
• Read the Bible as a family.   Meal- or bed-time works for most families.  Make it a priority!   No excuses!   Genesis and Judges are loaded with interesting accounts of our Heroes!!    The bible has poetry and wisdom, too, along with history and science.   It's all there!   Do your children know where your Bible is located?
• Memorize Scripture passages together.   Demonstrate that you expect them to learn & know these things.    There are Scriptures set to music, too.   Play it in the car while carpooling.   It's your car, you get to decide the music and the radio station.   Don't be a jello-mom--be firm!   And smile, "Someday you'll thank me for this."  
• Attend church and Bible class and Sunday School faithfully.  Talk about church stuff on the way home.  Let nothing get in the way of your whole family being together in this.  
• Sing praises to God.   Sing your babies to sleep with "Jesus Loves Me" and "I am Jesus' Little Lamb," and  hymns and psalms (babies are not music critics).  Learn hymns, memorize psalms.  God  hears your HEART praising Him!
• Pray together.    Start and end your meals with prayer.  Pray at bedtime.   Pray with and for your children in their presence.  Lift up their future spouses in prayer, too.    Pray for God's will to be done in your life and theirs.   A helpful prayer rubric:  ACTS 

• Adoration (of God)
• Confession of sins (repentance)
• Thanksgiving (blessings)
• Supplication (asking God for favors).    

"She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:

'Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.'

...a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate."

Proverbs 31: 25-31 NIV