Giving, Sowing and Finding Joy

For you who commented upon my last post or at the Hobbit Cottage one--a big thank-you! Yesterday our one-year anniversary in our new home felt special, almost like a birthday, a day I spent with a celebrating heart. So really, thanks, for joining with Tom and myself on this momentous occasion.

And what did we do to celebrate? We took a country drive back in our old 'neck of the woods.' Our car knew the way and knew to stop at big countryside yard sales, but at one nearer Hobbit Cottage, we found nothing to buy, yet the sweet black woman was raising money for her sister who'd been flooded in Louisiana so we gave her some money to help her sister and she was blessed.

But we felt more blessed in the giving.

Then out there in the countryside the sun bore down on us while we searched boxes and tables for treasures, so after awhile we stopped at a newly-opened Mexican restaurant, one with no other cars in front of it. And yes, we stepped inside so to eat lunch--but also to help encourage a new business with our dollars. We enjoyed extra conversation with our server and we left her a bit of an extra tip as an encouragement.

Then on we traveled to our old town, the one which holds our farm, and as we neared the old property, we spied our neighbors from across the street so we pulled over and chatted with them. Gave them the good news of Tom's job and our happiness at Hobbit Cottage and how pleasant to visit with them again and good to see that our former farmland was mowed (my huge garden had been returned to lawn, alas, and the pasture fence, gone). And the flower beds up against the house were growing wild, neglected, but oh well! Mine here at Hobbit Cottage are loved and thriving and that is what matters now.

Coming into that old country town we saw one restaurant's parking lot was packed with cars, but our favorite retro place? Not a single car there. Well, I wanted to give to them, too, so we stopped there and at the door we saw a new sign saying they'd no longer be serving dinner, but instead, would stay open only until 2:00 each day. Oh dear ... I felt sad for them. But we ordered our ice cream cones for the country roads home and I was glad that we'd stopped, that we'd spread some encouragement seeds there, also.

Am I sharing these little giving stories to brag? No way. But some of you ask me for 'giving ideas,' so there you go... ideas. And is giving money the only way? Of course not! There are a bazillion ways to give of ourselves. 

But what I've seen? Sometimes God must free us to give from our wallets before we can give from our hearts. I've often seen that money hoarders can be hoarders of kindnesses ... saving, keeping, squirreling away, and giving only to themselves or their own tiny worlds.

There is a happy flow to giving and I hope you are living smack dab in the center of that flow. There is no other happiness like it.


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"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 6:38

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