My Favorite Things: Goodness

This week's events involving Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson, GQ, and A & E have taken the top news slots on local and nationwide news venues. It's occupied 90% of my social media feeds, and it's a headliner of dozens of magazines in the checkout line.

Also this week, South Sudanese rebels kept US citizens from leaving their war-ravaged country, there was a(nother) deadly school shooting in Colorado, and US Troops were killed in action in Afghanistan.

Still, the top story was the whole Duck Dynasty /A & E diatribe.

I really have nothing to say about the aforementioned debacle--everything's already been said. I do however want to share some good news with you:  

Goodness is still happening.

A stranger paid off $10,000 worth of Kmart layaways for strangers this week because he wanted to.

Seventh grade students collected boxes full of goodies to send to Afghanastan, specifically to two of their classmates's dads who are deployed there.

An individual found himself with an unneeded trailer home, fully furnished, and gave it to a homeless family.

Goodness and good news exist.  This week when my faith calls me to celebrate the Good News incarnate, I'm choosing to look for goodness. 

It will not be found on the television nor the news papers and probably not in my Facebook newsfeed. But, I'm confident in the fact that I will find goodness in my life. I hope you find it in your life this week, too.

#ThankfulThursdays: If it needs to be done

Photo Credit

Last week, we met another family from our church at our local homeless shelter to help serve the evening meal. The church provided the food. We just needed to serve it.

Daughter 2 had served this summer at the same shelter. She was nervous about going back because she hated to see the children there who had no place else to be. Daughter 1, who is always so cool and pretty much knows everything there is to know, snorted and asked her, "Would you rather them be at the shelter or sleeping in a car?" She had a point, but she also had an attitude that made me wonder if #ThankfulThursdays had been effective at all.

We arrived, and we served. Daughter 1 floated between serving  cupcakes and visiting with the residents. Daughter 2 and her little friend from church (a member of the other family) visited with the residents and had a grand ol' time.

We had to serve and run because D2 and Brian had a meeting at her school, and D1 and I had a meeting at our school.

As we drove away from the shelter, I asked D1 what her thoughts were about serving at the shelter.

"It was good," she said.

"Do you have any thoughts about it?" I asked, obviously fishing for blog fodder as well as evidence that #ThankfulThursdays had not been in vain.

"What kind of thoughts?" she asked me back.

"Do you think you'd want to serve dinner again?"

"If it needs to be done, I think we should totally do it again."

And ... there was my proof.

If it needs to be done ...

Throughout the past six weeks or so as we've done our #ThankfulThursdays, I've hoped that The Daughters will grow in two ways:  That they are more grateful for the life that they have, and that they are aware of the needs of others.

Sunday morning, I was visiting with my friend Lee. Our girls are close in age and have played softball together for several seasons. She said she loved the Get Well Soon cards that we did because it was so simple and so easy.

That's yet another lesson I want my girls to know: Being grateful, serving others--it doesn't need to be a big production. We don't need to be rich to do it. We don't need to make it a huge ordeal. We just need to do what we can.

"If it needs to be done ... " Good words to end our #ThankfulThursdays.

#ThankfulThursday: Thirsty

Almost as soon as we get in the car to go church, across town, school, the grocery store, wherever, someone will say, "I'm thirsty."

We put The Daughters to bed and as soon as we do, we hear, "I need a drink."

I have a water bottle on my desk all day long and a cup full of ice water on the table beside me all night long. 

We are heavy drinkers, and we take it for granted. Today, I wanted The Daughters to understand that some people don't have the luxury of a simple drink of water at their disposal. We went to our favorite small grocery store and bought a few cases of water and delivered them to the homeless shelter in our town. 

"What will they do with them?" Daughter 2 asked.

"Give them to anyone who's thirsty," I answered.

"They should give them ..." 

And that's when the rules started. 

Give them to people who aren't staying the night--only passing through.
Give them out first thing in the morning. Give them out last thing at night.
Put them in the fridge so they are cold.
Leave them at room temperature so the bottles won't sweat.
Make people refill the bottles. 
Make people recycle the bottles.
Make people turn in one bottle to get another.

This wasn't the conversation I had intended, but it worked out well. This was the perfect opportunity for me to explain to them that when we give, we don't attach strings or rules or regulations. We give for two reasons and two reasons only: We want to and we need to.  

And when we give our gift, we let it go. It's not ours anymore. We have to trust that what needs to be done will be done. 

So, we delivered the water, and as one of my favorite people, Misti Pryor often says, we blessed it and let it go. That may be the hardest part of giving--letting it go without our strings attached. It's also the most beautiful part of giving.

For next week's #ThankfulThursday, we're going back to the same shelter and serving a meal with our church. Daughter 2 has done this before. Daughter 1, I'm hoping, will understand just how blessed her life is that she has a choice in what she eats for dinner. 

Thankful Thursdays: Come along with us

CLICK.

Daughter 2 reached over the locked the doors as I stopped at the intersection.

"Whew," she sighed. "That was close."

"What was close?"

"That homeless man was standing right there with his sign and our door was unlocked!"

Not the actual sign--
even I knew better than to snap a pic at that moment.
Source.

It stopped me cold. Our town isn't known for peddlers but we are seeing more and more here and there. And, we have traveled to the bigger cities on several occasions and have seen the peddlers and beggars and have visited with our kids about who these people are and what they do.

I know ... I know ... a lot of them are scam artists, but I'm not on this planet to judge or interview or audit them. I'm on this planet to love them and to help them in whatever way I can. And I was really taken aback that Daughter 2 locked her door at the sight of this poor man holding his sign.

The light changed, and I turned onto the highway and drove straight to McGaggles. I bought him and his companion a couple of meals and some waters. I also talked to Daughter 2 about empathy. If we were in that situation, how would we feel? How would we feel when someone helped us? What would we want someone to do for us? So, we also got them a couple of fried pies.

We returned to the couple, and Daughter 2 opted to stay in the car while I delivered the food. She rolled down the window so she could hear me talk to them and to hear if I "yelled for help." We have a long way to go.

Brian and I have gone great lengths to make sure our girls understand that we are ALL (collectively, as a human race) in this world together, and we are called to do one thing as far as our fellow humans go: Love them. I'd like to believe that Daughter 2 does love the man with the sign, but she's not entirely certain how to do that ... and she's not entirely certain that it's okay. Since she's only nine years old, being a skeptic bodes well for her. This really did need to be something that I, as her momma, leads her in.

So, we're going to count down to Thanksgiving every Thursday. Come back here (www.Minivan-Momma.com) every Thursday--starting in TWO days--for the Thankful challenge. Each week, I'll post a challenge for you or you and your family to expand your world, be thankful for your life and love people.

We'll have a link to our Thankful Thursday Pinterest board. (Email me at Minivan.Momma.2{at}gmail{dot}com and let me know you want to contribute to the group board). We'll reveal our Twitter/Facebook/Instragram Hashtag.

You do not need to be a blogger to play along.

I can't wait to do Thankful Thursdays with you!