Greatest Gift

The past few years at our old church we were stretched and challenged to give our greatest gift to God for Christmas, it is his birthday after all that we are celebrating. It was pretty simple. Take a look at how much you spent on the biggest gift and challenge yourself to give that much and more back to God. It's not strictly related to money. It could be any number of things. This year I'm really putting some more thought into what I would give God besides our offering. As I said it's not just about money. I need to consider time, talent and treasure.
To make it a bit easier I had to go back and look at what it really means to tithe (I'm just using this as one example of giving). God obviously does not need our money, it's the simple act of reverence in giving back a portion of what he has given you. To acknowledge that none of it really belongs to you, it all belongs to him anyway, and he only asks for a small portion. Most of our married life Michael and I have given back to God what we barely had enough of for ourselves. It was a trust thing. We both steadfastly believed that God would take care of us no matter what and so we gave, believing His promises.

I suppose you could easily say that time was just as valuable as money, sometimes even more so.

And talent... How often do I use talents God has given to me to give back to Him?

And so this is where my challenge lies. How can I put these thoughts into action. I can think of a few things. I can also think of a few ways to involve the family with me. They are on my Christmas bucket list.  Just wanted to let you know where my heart was.

(Why does it seem like I can get all my thoughts out in a few sentences? Do you prefer reading drawn out blogs? I guess I don't and so I summarize everything. Oh well, makes for a good quick read.)