Its time.

I have mentioned before that the mister and I have date night on Wednesday nights...we have dinner out and then we go to a church service called "the well". Its awesome...its laid back, and the theme is "no perfect" people and that its not a "perfect service". Tonight the pastor talked about being unsettled. He talked about being reckless with Gods love, and giving radically. He talked about how so many of us have so much excess...and how we don't give. We don't give of ourselves or of our gifts. It hit me really hard.

 

About 7 years ago, the mister and I were in some big financial trouble. We were about to get married, and we had a ton of debt from our previous marriages. We made the choice to file bankruptcy. The bank was going to take our cars. When you have 4 kids, and no car.....life can get pretty tough. Well...about 1 hour before we were supposed to surrender our car over to the bank our church called and said that they needed to talk to us. So we headed over to the church. When we got there, there was a couple standing in the foyer and they said..."we would like to give you a car." I shook my head like I didn't hear them correctly...Huh? You wanna GIVE us a car? Yes, we would like to give you this suburban. And just like that...expecting NOTHING in return they gave us a suburban. I remember riding home in that old blue suburban crying my eyes out..being completely overwhelmed by the blessing we had just received.  

 

 

(the big blue "burban" as the kids called it)

 

About 1 year later, the mister lost his job of 10 years. I remember being hysterical because we had so many bills...and I was already working 3 jobs. One night we had gone to an event at our church and when we came home there were bags and bags of groceries on our patio. (it was cold outside so everything was still good!) I means BAGS of food...like 9 bags of groceries. There was everything from chicken and hamburger to doritos, oatmeal, pasta, oreos and bananas! I called to my parents to say thank you (because I was sure that it was them who had left them) and my mom kept saying "baby, i love you and I was going to come over tomorrow to take you to get some groceries, but I didnt leave those". I hung up the phone and just cried. The mister and I STILL have NO IDEA who left those groceries on our porch.

 

Each of those times, and many MANY times more....people have given to bless us. They were reckless love and with their giving.

 

God has really blessed us in the past 3 years, and we have been able to give back. It feels so good to be able to bless people, just like we were blessed.

 

As the thanksgiving and Christmas are getting closer...it makes me think about the people that cant afford food...the kids who cant afford coats. The family who cant buy ANYTHING for their kids for Christmas...heck, they cant even buy them snow boots or gloves. It WRECKS me inside. It breaks my heart.

 

The mister and I are going to be reckless with our love and with our giving. Its time. Its time to love like we are called to love and give like we are called to give. What about you? Is it time for you to give....time to love recklessly?