Saturday, December 1, 2012

Light 'em Up!


I really wanted to focus on giving this Christmas season.

Last year, I decided on my word for the year but I cheated a little and chose a phrase. "Give more, spend less."

I tried all year long to focus on giving and less on spending. Looking back, I feel like I failed miserably in so many way but the point is not to make yourself feel guilty, it's to inspire you to do more. And I definitely did. Yes I could have done more. But the point is, I stepped out of my comfort zone and found some new ways to be generous.

 I started tithing at my church....yup, until this year I had not been tithing regularly. Now I've firmly gotten myself into the habit. I adopted a Compassion child; we write letters every month and I just sent her a Christmas and a birthday gift. I gave money to a family whose house burned down this spring. I did a little bit of volunteering, and I baked a lot of things for moms with new babies and some funerals at our church. Just little, everyday things like that. Things I should already be doing, but always found excuses not to.

I knew that when Christmas rolled around I wanted to find some ways for Brook to experience the joy of giving. I brainstormed a few ideas and we have been talking a lot about how excited we are to give gifts to other people, versus focusing on what she will be getting.

And then I found this blog post.

It was exactly what I was looking for, exactly what I wanted the holidays to be focused on for our family. What I want her to grow up remembering most fondly.

I read this and had tears welling in my eyes. She managed to write down exactly what had been laying on my heart for so long, but for some reason I couldn't verbalize it.


This year, I am participating in the Light Em Up campaign! And I am super, super excited! I cannot wait to show Brook how good it feels to give, and to find ways for her to live out her faith. No lectures, no boring lessons....just real life. Real giving. Real joy.










We are starting tomorrow. I will share a few of our activities, but I won't be blogging about all of them. I thought about making it a daily post, but it just didn't seem right. I want to share some of our ideas with you guys, in hopes it will inspire some of you to join in. But I think this quote from the blog says it best

"Don’t forget to be sneaky and anonymous when possible. Whenever we get the credit or glory, we get further away from true service and generosity."

 


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