"For it is in giving that we receive.” .... St. Francis of Assisi


Over the 16 years that Tom has worked here in New York, his company has held summer parties at fairs and a Christmas party on a solve-the-mystery train, dinners in fancy restaurants, and one at a place where people act like Vikings (or something) and throw food around (we didn't attend that one and Tom had to work during the mystery train ride, too). 

For Thanksgiving they've shared free turkeys and had lunches there at the plant and for Christmas they've given $100 gift cards for our favorite supermarket. For both major holidays, the two guys working the dayshift received a lovely, festive meal there at the plant.

But this year? This year we got cutbacks. 

There was no summer party. No fancy dinner, no free turkey and no terrific supermarket gift card. There was no festive meal for Tom, the only guy who had to work on Christmas (no meal for the guy who had to work Thanksgiving, either.) There was a happy hour at a bar, but we didn't go. There will be a cold cut lunch at the plant next week, but Tom will be working night shift and sleeping that afternoon.

Sigh. I sorely missed the free Thanksgiving turkey and that fun supermarket gift card.

Did you catch that quote at the top of this post? You know, "It is in giving that we receive."? Well, those words peck, peck at my brain, those and the ones from this Bible verse, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." ... Luke 6:39

In order to reap what we need--and the extra stuff, too--we first must sow seeds. 

Seeds of work, giving and time spent. Seeds of prayer, kindness, money and more. Oh, I realize it can appear as though we're getting ahead if we horde and work only for ourselves, but alas! I believe we would have received more had we given. Had we sown fearlessly and  unselfishly. 

God created principles so that we'd all be taken care of. 

This sowing and reaping thing, I believe, is huge. A major one which runs totally opposite to this world's way of thinking and doing. 

Yet I've watched it work a million times, just as God planned that it would, for all of my 50 years. It --and God--has never failed me and I know never will He.


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"Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever you plant is what you'll harvest." Galations 6:7


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And lest anyone comment that I should just be thankful that Tom has a job in Today's economy, let me assure you, I am. 

Deeply so, but this is not a post about that, and too, I'm ever so grateful they still give a yearly bonus in February. 

But I was trying to make a separate point in this post, one which God drills into my head, like, all the time. And yes, I believe this sowing and reaping principle works for non-Christians, though I realize that's a controversial point. Still, I believe it's such a strong, vital principle that it works for anyone who applies it. 


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"God's ways are not our ways..." I Corinthians 1:25


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