#bethegift

Recently Bob Van Zandt, founder and CEO of SonGear and Life with Jesus is Better, put out a challenge to be the gift this Christmas season. He is encouraging people to do something to bless others. The list of ways to be the gift is endless.

Here are a few examples:
babysit for a single mom so that she can do some Christmas shopping
volunteer at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen
visit a nursing home or children's hospital
make and deliver dinner to a firehouse for the firemen
take an elderly person shopping
help a neighbor
pay for the person behind you at the drive thru
clean the house of a busy family

Here is what my son and I did!

I challenge you today to step out and be the gift. Bless someone by using your time and effort. Be sure to use the hashtag #bethegift

Learning To Serve

March brought many opportunities for me to serve others.  I was able to pay for someone in the drive thru behind me, picked up groceries for a friend who was sick and unable to go to the store, bought a few groceries for someone and served my church's community through a couple of outreaches.  Serving always feels good.  I never leave from serving someone and feel like I wasted time.  It is such a blessing to bless someone else. While I love to serve and never regret it, I have to admit that there are times that I grumble going into it.  That is something I am working on.  To continue reading, please head over to Woman to Woman Ministries.  

Serve Update & Giveaway

So often we think of serving as spending money.  Yes, many times when we serve we do need to spend money, but not always.  This is where I often struggle with serving.  I desperately want to help others in a financial way {like buying groceries for someone, or paying for the person behind me in the drive-thru, etc} but I don't always have the money to do so.  January is normally a very slow time for my husband at work.  Often times he is even off work for a few weeks.  So extra money to serve others is something we do not always have.  But serving others doesn't have to be a financial burden. 

To read more and enter to win a beautiful necklace from The Rusted Chain, click HERE.

Having A Mission-Minded Heart

Religion that God our Father accepts as
pure and faultless is this: to look after 

orphans and widows in their distress and 

to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

God wants us to have a heart for the orphans, for the fatherless.  Sadly, no matter what country you live in, you don't have to look far to find the orphans.  We live in a hurting world with orphans all over.  Children who go to bed at night without a mommy and daddy to tuck them in.  Children who have never had a story read to them.  Children who go to bed literally starving.  Children who feel lost and alone.  God wants us to reach out to them.  We need to have a mission-minded heart.  

Are we reaching out?

Are we teaching our children to love the orphans?

Photo Source

If your family is in a position to, I encourage you to contact a Christian sponsorship program like World Vision or Compassion International.  Our children's ministry at church has sponsored a precious little girl from El Salvador.  Our children in the church collect change all month long to support our little girl.  We pray for her as a group and encourage our children to pray for her at home.  Her beautiful little picture is posted in our kitchen as a reminder to pray for her and collect our change for her.

Maybe you don't have the money to sponsor a child, but you can still pray.  Daily pray that God would bless the orphans and send people there to help them.

Check locally at shelters and see where you can volunteer to help serve the widows, orphans and homeless.  You can donate old blankets, coats, shoes and even teddy bears.  Why throw them out when someone can be blessed by them.  You can donate time to help out at shelters.

Look around your own church and neighborhood.  Is there a widow who could use some help around her home?  Maybe just a friend to have tea with.  Is there a single mom struggling?  Maybe she could use a free babysitter or help with the laundry.  Is there an elderly man or woman in a nursing home with no family to visit?  They could use someone to show them they are loved.

I want my children to grow up with a servant's heart.  A heart to reach out and care about others.  They will only grow up with that if they first see it in me, if I model that to them now.  Are you showing your kids how to have a mission-minded heart?  A servant's heart?

Linking with:

Legacy Leaver Thursday

Thought Provoking Thursday 

Proverbs 31 Thursday

Thriving Thursday

Learning To Serve

Today at Woman to Woman Ministries, we are announcing our team 'one word.'  We are so excited about this journey in 2013.

My deepest desire is for the world to see Jesus through me.  All throughout the Bible you see stories of Jesus serving others.  He, the King of all kings, even washed the feet of others as an act of service.  If people are going to see Jesus in me, I must serve.  Serve my husband, my children, my family, my church, my community, and anyone who God places in my path. Sometimes this service may simply be lending a helping hand for a few moments and sometimes it may be going beyond me and serving in His strength.  I am thrilled to focus on service this year and be the hands and feet of Christ.

To continue reading and for more encouragement on serving, head over to Woman to Woman.

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