Monday, December 12, 2011

The weirdest blessing

"May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, and starvation, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. May God bless you with the weirdest blessing possible-his divine burden. Amen"-Craig Grieschel, Weird

This has stuck home with my family this holiday season. We're shaking up our family traditions, and thinking of others this year. In lieu of spending $45 dollars + on a tree at Hillcrest Farm, which is fun, we have opted to spend that money on adopting a family for Christmas. I'm not sure about how much the boys understand-they do understand the meaning of Christmas, and how we're celebrating Jesus' birth. They have asked whether Santa will come if we don't have a tree, and we told them that Santa comes regardless of having a tree. My friend is going to loan us a spare artificial tree that she has, and I'm hoping that will suffice. Given how we're trying to consistently laying the framework for thinking beyond ourselves, I'm hoping the boys will see the bigger picture. The family we're adopting is a single mom, and she has three children, a six, four, and 2 year old; I'm hoping to get everything squared away in the next week for them; its a welcome burden blessing another household, and I'm looking forward to surprising them.

We have two huge groups of donations headed out, clothes and food, to other great causes. I need to tidy up the rest of the order so we can get those to the families who need it. You don't have to look past the corner to see someone in need, so we're sharing the wealth. I'm excited to spread the holiday spirit with others, and show our children how its better to give than receive.

To quote my friend Nikki, who put this so eloquently as a response to me sharing a recent post about the holiday season "I heard a boy in target last night telling his mom.. NO mom I NEED this Lego set and the mon said ok fine.. Put it in the cart... I wanted to shake her and say PLEASE for the love of God tell that sweet boy he doesn't NEED that! He needs clothes, food and shelter.. He doesn't need that lego set. I am not saying don't buy your kids stuff, just tell them the difference between want and need... "

May we have more smiles than tears, more warmth than cold, and more sweetness this holiday season than ever before. Its the holidays, and its okay to be weird now too.

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