"That was awesome Mom"

Today was a normal day with a little lesson thrown in it......a lesson that I will continue to share with Jake as he grows up....giving...vs... receiving.

I have to clean out Jake's room/closet/play room in order to make room for the new "Santa" gifts. Today was that day. Jake was in there watching me - - questioning what I was doing, why I was doing it, picking stuff out of the pile, me putting it back in the pile (LOL)...then it hit me.....we need to give these perfectly good toys to HAMM (a ministry close to where we live that is like goodwill - but works with families in our community). I started sharing with Jake that there were kids out there who weren't as blessed as he was - didn't have the toys that he had and wasn't going to have the Christmas that he was going to have. I asked him, wouldn't it be nice to give some kids your used toys that might not be able to get anything for Christmas. His little eyes lit up - he was so excited. I told him he could ride with me to the ministry and help unload the toys. Daddy loaded the car and off we went.

On the way to the ministry - he would ask me, "now where are we going mommy" and I would tell him "we are going to give toys to the needy".....he would sit back and smile. Once there, I told the man that we would like to donate some toys....we unloaded the toys with a smile on every one's face as Jake was there being a part of it. Once back in the car, Jake said, "that was awesome mom". My heart smiled.

I love knowing that he will be blessed for being a blessing. This is something that my husband and I want to continue to teach him. Mark and I know what it means to be blessed by helping others. Every Christmas, we take the money that we would spend on each other and purchase gift cards that we give to our pastor to pass out to needy families in our church. We ask that our names be kept anonymous, no one needs to know where it came from - God knows - he knows our hearts. We don't do this for our glory - we do it to glorify him and acknowledge that we know we are blessed - therefore, we bless others.

May your heart be merry this season. May God shine his face towards you and your family during this holiday time.

Be Blessed. Love to all.