Give it Away, Give it Away, Give it Away Now

In past Christmas seasons, I am ashamed to admit that I have devoured all of the gifts, traditions, and enjoyments in a selfish manner. It was all about savoring every moment, indulging my senses with many of my favorite things with intention to tide me over until the season came around again.

This year, however, I have felt God laying it on my heart to stop hoarding my blessings - especially during my favorite time of year. After all, isn't there more joy to be had in sharing my love of the season, rather than keeping it all for myself? The answer is yes. :)

There are a couple of ways that I am responding to what has been laid on my heart.

For starters, I have been gutting my closet lately in an attempt give away clothes that I absolutely do not need. Because I am a very sentimental person, I have a tendency to keep items simply if they remind me of a particular place or experience. For example, there is this shirt:

It brings back a hilarious memory with amazing friends, Mikaela and Emily. But the simple truth is that I was never a huge fan of this shirt and just bought it so we each would have one. I think I have worn it once because I feel as though it fits me weird.

So out it goes! Along with many others. This time, unlike previously pathetic closet cleansing experiences, when I hold up an item that I am on the fence about, I ask myself, "Could someone else use this more?". If the answer is "Yes", it goes in the pile.

I have been looking at this experience a bit as a purging of silly t-shirts that don't relate to my level of silliness anymore.

 For example, while the My Little Pony t-shirt goes,

 the Teen Wolf t-shirt stays.

 I am still on the fence with the Queen t-shirt - not quite sure if I am ready to let go of my Queen phase yet :). 

Secondly, this video was shown during church last Sunday:

And it really drove the point home to me that Christmas is a time to externalize love, not to internalize and hoard.

It is a bit ironic that I am feeling this way this year, as it has been many years since I have felt this......un-wealthy. So the fact that I feel this desire to give pressing upon my heart is proof that God is stoking this fire. If our family was rolling in the dough, so to speak, it would seem more natural to want to pour forth from that overflow. But since our wallet is tighter than it has been in recent years, I believe that this burden is a chance to step out in faith and open the door to allow God to do some really amazing things in our lives.

Challenge accepted, God :).

Lastly, I want to encourage anyone reading this to step out and give a little of yourself this season - whether it is for a loved one or a stranger, whether it is financial or some simple quality time - I pray that our eyes are all opened to the fact that time is short and we only have so many moments to make someone else's life better, even if it is just for a day.

Here is one more video that I wanted to share. I watched it earlier today and seriously bawled my eyes out - in a heaving sobs, puffy eyes, snotty nose kind of way. Finn was looking at me like, "Mom? What's the shiz, diz?"

But it is another wonderful example of being an offering to make someone else's life more extraordinary: