The heart of giving...

I want my children to have a heart for others, I want them to be compassionate, affectionate, caring, loving and always put others before themselves.  This is a prayer that I pray for them almost daily. I learned a lot of those traits, thankfully by WATCHING the actions of both my Mama and my Daddy.  They have both always been this way.  I pray for the Lord to show me opportunities to do His work so that my children may learn by actions.  


About a month ago we whipped into Subway to pick up a sandwich for Master P aka P-Daddy.  We all noticed a man on the sidewalk in front of the building dancing around like a crazy man. He had long dreadlocks and reminded Cash of a Jamaica man from our vacation this summer.  I won't lie, my first thought to myself was not positive.  I have a strong opinion about people that I "think" are druggies, you will have to look back at some much earlier posts this year for that information.  Cash and Arden asked me what was that man doing dancing and I told them he was just happy.  I carried on inside with my original, thoughtless plan of buying a sandwich.  While standing there I asked the guys,"you know there is a guy out there dancing around on your sidewalk"? They knew, they actually knew him.  I asked them if he was a druggie or a homeless guy.  They said they didn't believe he was a druggie and that he from time to time came inside to get a drink or something, he was harmless.  As I was checking out I looked down and saw a gift card.  How hard could it be to purchase a gift card and share God's love with this man?  That's just what I did.  I went back to the car and told the kids that we were going to show this man God's love by buying him something to eat.  The man was very thankful and he even said "God bless you ma'am". I don't tell this story to "toot" my own horn, in fact under normal circumstances I would never even told it, in fact until now I have not.   I don't know how profound an impact that had on my children that day but I like to believe it led to an event the next week.  I have been really talking to Cash about giving to others in need and how we are so blessed.  We packed a shoe box, one for each child, they went with me to the store to buy all the goodies and I talked to them about where the gifts were going and we prayed for the children that were going to receive our boxes.  We watched a video at my parents church that showed the children getting to open their shoe boxes, I really played this up to Cash.  So after the Subway incident and after the shoe boxes were packed Cash comes up to me from out of nowhere and says, "Mama, I wish we could get a big ole box to back my spider man bike in and give to one of those kids that doesn't have a bike".  My. Heart. Melted!!  They are watching, they are listening, they are hanging on to every word, what are we teaching them?  I fail all the time but sometimes I get it right.  Thank you Jesus for the times I get it  right and for teaching me again when I get it wrong.  Cash has a huge heart and I am SO thankful for it! I am not sure about Arden yet, she did recently break the dog's toes so I guess time will tell?! :)