Luke 6:38
"Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure--pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."
My momma always told me that if you give, you will receive. This mainly was because every Sunday she has her envelope ready to drop in the offering plate at church as it came around, and I as a child never understood how she could afford to give money to the church every week with all the other stuff she had to pay for. She assured me that when you give to God, he gives back to you in other ways.
That little quote has always stuck with me in life. I feel that I am a pretty giving person when it comes to helping others. My heart always breaks a little when I see a homeless person, or animal, looking for food or shelter. I feel guilty like it is my job to feed them or give them money. Stuart thinks I am crazy when I pull cat food out of the back of my car to feed the cats at the gas station, but I always feel a little bit better about myself :)
This past weekend while Stu and I were in the mountains, we found a little store that sells homemade jams and jellys canned in jars. After trying a couple with some crackers that they had out, we decided that we really wanted to buy some of the strawberry orange marmalade preserve. As we went to pay, Stu realized he didn't have any cash on him and saw that they didn't take cards. He told the owner that he had checks in the car so he would be right back. While waiting on Stu, I started to wander around the store more and talk to the owner about his business. He was a middle aged man who talked about his three daughters, wife, and how they became to be owners of their own jam and jelly business. Stuart came back in empty handed and told the man that he had left his checkbook at home and we could not buy the jelly today. The owner kept the conversation going and started to ask Stuart about his Clemson hat and education. Next thing I know, he is packing up the preserves in a bag, along with a jar of pepper jelly I had commented on about liking, and telling us to pay him later. I was really taken back on the generosity of this man. Here we are, two strangers who just stumbled in his store today, and now he is going to trust us to pay him back later! He told us to mail him a check, "It's what we do in the mountains." Stu and I left with our two jars of jelly and were really amazed that this nice man just gave them to us and trusted that we would pay him later.
We came home Sunday and were unpacking our things and I started to think about this man again. He gave us that stuff without getting anything in return. He trusted that we would do the right thing and pay him back. Well yes, we did send him a check in the mail with a huge thank you note attached, but it really got me thinking about doing something extra nice for someone who is truly in need of something. I recently moved all my winter clothes up to Greenville from Mom's house and realized I had more than enough jackets to get me through this cold weather. Mom takes a lot of our old stuff to church owned thrift stores, but I thought about starting a coat drive instead. Stu was all in for it, so I called around to a couple homeless shelters yesterday and asked how drop offs worked. I decided that we would collect as many coats as we could, and give them to two local shelters up here called Miracle Hill Ministries. One of for women and children, and the other is for men and families. My goal is that we can collect at least 100 coats by Thanksgiving, and deliver them the following week.
If you know anyone who is willing to donate to our coat drive, please contact me and we will get them from you!
Check out Appalachian Harvest online at http://www.jamsnjelly.com/
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