Tag Archives: gifts

Why I Don’t Give to Charity Anymore

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Okay, okay… it’s not that I don’t give to charities anymore, it’s just that I am getting slightly overwhelmed with the amount of options now! Halloween is over and boom… the holiday blitz kicks in, and my mailbox is full of charitable gift giving catalogues urging me to give great aunt Lucy a dozen chickens! Forget great aunt Lucy… I want a dozen chickens! (But that’s a different story.)

We attended three charity events last week. Three. We also turned down two more invitations for the same week! Is it just me, or does everybody seem to be raising money for something now? And believe me, we are not being targeted because of our large paycheques. In fact, I work for a charity… so I can give a portion of my paycheck away right from the start! My local cashier has been trained to bequest my donation upon every check out… and my name gets written on the wall for all to see. Sometimes you get more than a token name calling… perhaps you get a free water bottle, or balloon, or keychain or… well, you get my point.

And so I muse… how do we choose? How do I know that my hard earned funds are going to really help people, or the environment, or fight injustices? Do I use my givings simply as a tax break, or an excuse to be greener, or flaunt it in my social media calendar invites to prove I am just so loving? Have we become too accepting of donations that we simply don’t give till it hurts anymore? Or have the bombardments made us callous, so that we are wary of scams and frauds. Or we simply don’t give anymore for fear of having our mailboxes overloaded with letters. Afterall, if they used that mailing budget to fund the charity, more money could be used to help rather than advertise… am I right?

How do you choose your Charity?

My usual quick google search of “charity” leads me to see that it is the “voluntary giving of help, typically in the form of money, to those in need” (Oxford dictionary). Biblical research sends me to 1 Corinthians 13…The “love” chapter. We tend to equate charity with love… especially love towards our fellow humans as a result of our understanding of God’s love and ultimate sacrifice for us on the cross. I get it. But that doesn’t really make it easier to decipher who, why and when and how. Or does it?

Have you ever met someone who exudes Christ’s love? That aura, that persona, that embodiment that just oozes kindness and sincere “charity”? Not because they need to. Not because they have to. Not because they got a catalogue in the mail. They just naturally love the cause, and want to see it flourish and grow. I think that is an example of true charity. Passion. What stirs your heart, my friend? I’m asking myself the same question right now. Hmmmn.

Perhaps I will have to rethink my Christmas gift giving. Perhaps I will need to be more frugal with my wishes. My lines are not drawn on this one quite yet. How do I choose? I’d love to hear your thoughts… drop me a note in the comments below or connect with us on social media!

I’ve mused about this topic before! Check out these posts: Charity on the Refrigerator The Green Debate and Legacies

Using our Gifts and Talents

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A short post today for all my adoring fans.  Ya’ll are too stuffed with Canadian Thanksgiving Turkey anyway, right?  It’ll be short because a tonne of my energies have been working on our newly created 30 Days of Blessings! challenge!! Hurray!  Which got me thinking… why don’t we get tired of doing what we love?!

For any of you who have taken any kind of personality test or giftings survey, you will know that each of us were created with distinct personality types.  Introvert, extrovert, planner, partier, type A, type B — all those kinds of things.  Then, of course, we have certain talents and spiritual gifts as well.   Some of us are good at organizing, some – not so much.  There are the creative ones who work with their hands, and others who flourish in relationships and relate to people.  Some of us have our cat as a best friend.  I have actually studied a lot about this topic — especially with regards to learning styles and how we learn based on our personalities (perhaps another day I will enlighten you all about that!)  For now, let’s just say we are all different.Using our

It is because we are all different that life tends to flow rather well… we all fill in gaps that someone else has left behind.  God designed it that way!  Take for example, our 30 Days of Blessings endeavour… I have been thrilled to be tweaking photos and planning and promoting and writing up all the blurbs.  I love a project, and so I believe God has gifted me in administration…. I so adore a to-do list!  I don’t always get it all completed, of course, but I love to see the list!  My beloved, on the other hand, is a relationship guru.  He would rather spend time doing something with the family than sitting in front of a stack of papers.  So… we are trying to work on this venture together.  It’s been a learning curve, but he keeps me in checks and balances so that I don’t become a total hermit in front of the computer, and I give him a sticky note collection of what he needs to do next.  Somehow it works.

My encouragement for you on this post-thanksgiving day?  Be thankful that we are not all the same.  Rejoice that God has made you just the way you are, for just the thing He needs you to do, for just this perfect moment in time.  Delight in the fact that by working together we can achieve big things, my friends!  When you are in His will, and doing His work, there simply is no getting tired.  Not even after turkey dinner! 🙂

Want to use those gifts and talents to bless others?  Join us for the 30 Days of Blessings! challenge.  We start Oct. 15th, 2018.  Check out the 30 Days of Blessings page for sign up.30 Days of Blessings!

DIY Teacher’s Gifts: A Lesson in Gratitude

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Okay, confession time.  I am not good at being grateful.  Oh,  I have manners and know when to say please and thank you and I’m sorry (I’m Canadian afterall!) but I am not so good at being full of gratitude.  Recently, I was having a discussion with some friends about this topic of gratitude and it triggered a thought… are my children truly thankful for all they have?  Am I truly thankful for all I have?!  I live in a wonderful country where I am free to post my feelings and thoughts on a blog such as this.  I have food on the table, clothes on my back, and a roof over my head.  We have two cars and a place we can enjoy in the summer.  Our family is truly blessed.  In fact, I think we have way too much!  I have to start sorting and sharing as soon as the hamster wheel slows down.  Gratitude is tricky.  Are words enough?  Do we need to repay the kindness of a gift with another, reciprocal gift?  How do we be good examples to our children and show kindness and exude gratitude without being caught in the cycle of looking like we want something in return?  I don’t have the answer to this one.  Leave me a comment if you have some insight!

What I do know, is that we gotta start somewhere!  So, I decided that after my friendly discussion and sudden enlightenment about my lack of proper parenting, I knew that I had to tackle some thank you gifts!  The end of the school year is a great time to make some gratitude filled, easy to make, teacher thank you gifts!  These ones were pretty frugal too… an added bonus!  #gratitudeWe started out with some simple, dollar-store clay pots and leftover plastic buckets from spring planting… and then decorated away with paints and stickers and ribbons — stuff I had hanging around from other projects.  The paint didn’t stick to the green plastic, so we used some fun stickers and ABC’s for those.  The youngest and I had a nice bonding time doing some crafting… and it was a great opportunity for me to encourage her.  She didn’t think her bee looked quite right… so we added whimsical googly eyes … with such a cute result!

Next, we spooned in some dirt and simply added cuttings from some of my overgrown house plants!  This not only served our purpose, but gave us another opportunity to discuss sharing and being thankful for what we already have!  Succulents are perfect for this, as you don’t need much preparation ahead of time… simply snip and stick in some soil… this kalanchoe we had was spreading and already had tiny root shoots… so was easy to transplant.  We also separated some herbs and a lovely purple shamrock plant.  In the end, we had six quick and easy (and almost free!) gifts… enough for three elementary teachers and a few great sunday school helpers!  Some hand made cards topped off the lesson in gratitude (hand written by the kids, of course!) and volila!

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Teachers are very special people… and I am forever telling our four beloveds that teachers play a huge part in their lives!  Trust me… it is really hard to impart information to a large group of young people from diverse backgrounds who often don’t want to be sitting in that desk in front of you.  Especially when they come with a set of parents watching your every move.  Be kind to teachers.  They are human too.  They need some love and thanks after a full year in the classroom!

I’m not sure that my gratitude level has jumped too many degrees up the scale from this project… but at least it gave me a chance to chat a bit with the youngest two — and share some love around.  Perhaps it’s a start.  Perhaps it will “grow” on us as we practice more…. Sorry… couldn’t resist… some teacher taught me about puns once… aren’t you grateful? 🙂

 

P.S.  Once you have said “thank you” to your beloved teachers and said good-bye for another school year… keep following mittonmusings.com!  Click the follow button on the side bar … I have some exciting changes coming this summer!  You won’t want to miss it!!