Gratitude

I have had a "D.I. pile" (goodwill) for a really long time. And when it gets a little too high, Ben spontaneously takes it to the trailer when he goes to seminary. Well a little while back, a friend of mine gave me a bunch of clothes (can I tell you how awesome it was!! It reminded me of college, when my roomates and/or teammates would all go through their closets and we would put stuff in the locker room and people would take what they wanted. Loved it! Especially since most of my teammates bought WAY more expensive clothes than I did.) Since I got a bag of "new" clothes, I had to get rid of a lot of mine. (Our closets are really small.) So I went through my stuff and got rid of some thing. I sent a box to my sister-in-law, since a lot of it was stuff that wasn't in bad shape, i just found myself not wearing it very often. She was so grateful for it that it made me want to look for more things to get rid of and send them to her.
Recently, I did the same thing with Brooke's clothes. Again I had been given a few things from some older girls. And what didn't fit Brooke I gave to another friend, along with some more of my things that I didn't need anymore. Again, she was so appreciative of it, that it makes me want to go through and get rid of more clothes just to give it to them. It made me so glad that she liked it so much. Especially since some of the clothes were things I still really liked, but I just didn't wear it anymore (isn't it funny how we get attached to little material things). It just made me so happy inside they liked it.
Today I was thinking about blessings. I think that is how it works with the Lord. When we show so much appreciation and gratitude and bless others with what we have been given, He really wants to give us more. Just like I was so glad that my sister-in-law and my friend were so grateful for something so small, but it made me so happy that they liked it, that I wanted to do it again (just wish I had more things to give away.). Again, i think that is how it is with blessing from the Lord, of course on a much bigger (and sometimes smaller) scale. The more we appreciate the little things and show gratitude for them. The more He wants to give us. A simple lesson that I have always known, but sometimes you are reminded of it in new ways.


Like the signs say: Count your Blessings. And: Be Grateful, It's Contagious.