As you do your Christmas shopping, you are bound to run into the person who is feeling very guilty about buying presents. It’s so materialistic, they say. Well, yes, it is in one sense. After all, it is stuff. But if we are buying this stuff to bestow on our friends and family because God has bestowed so much of it on us that we just have to let it slosh over, then that is not materialism.
Thankfulness is a great antidote to false-guilt giving. Look at how much God throws away on us all the time. How much rain just runs down the gutter? How many sunsets are enjoyed by the whales because no one else is around to see them? What about the mountainsides covered in wildflowers that no human eye will behold? God just gives and gives and gives recklessly. He doesn’t want us to feel guilty about the sunset or the flowers. He wants us to overflow in thanksgiving. And though we cannot come near His capacity to give, we can imitate His extravagance by giving gifts and filling stockings and making fudge, all to the glory and praise of The Great Gift Giver Extraordinaire.
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lovely perspective … never thought of it this way 🙂
Thank you! You don’t get to hear this perspective often even in Christian circles and it is so refreshing…and freeing!
I would just want to add that we should give extravagantly to others who may have so little themselves. We’re here to bless our friends, churches, etc. But we must not forget those who we know outside the church. We should bless them with this extravagance as well so they can see the love and extravagance of our God.
I really needed to hear this today because I was starting to feel sort of sheepish about buying 8 bags full of groceries for two people 🙂 I just kept getting good ideas.
When you can, could you please draw this out some more. Your husband wrote (speaking of Christmas) that your children were teaching their children how to handle the abundance. How does one do that?
Merry Christmas!
Love this Nancy! Merry Christmas to you and all of yours.
A very pretty way of putting it. Thank you. 🙂
Got all teary eyed when I read it to my friend. Just lovely. Thank you!
Yesterday I was shopping with my daughter at the mall. When we came down to one end of it there was an obvious medical incident-It looked as though a man fell from the upper story. It looked very bad. Blood, paramedics, everyone looking very serious…. I don’t know if he was alive or not. And part of me thought “This should put a damper on our shopping trip. ” but the other part of me thought “I am here with my 18 year old, who wants to be with me,(an opportunity to be thankful in itself) and I have an opportunity to buy this really sweet coat for my 1yr old and instead of feeling guilty about it I’m going to be thankful and buy the coat and relish this time with my oldest daughter.”
I usually feel guilty over ever dollar I spend. Coffee at Starbucks (even if it’s good time spent with the 13 yr old), art supplies, food for dinner, everything. But instead of guilt I am trying to make a conscious effort to be THANKFUL!