Treasure

here are the facts:

we're in full blown holiday happiness around here

sweet peach is just four days shy of turning....ahem...seven 

i cannot speak of it with dry eyes

hubby has reminded me several times that she's turning seven, not getting married and moving to the other side of the world.

noted.

however, she's over halfway to being a teenager so i will cry if i want to.

lists for santa are being made (and changed) with regularity.

i'm hosting thanksgiving at my house for like 50 people.

we've all had colds.

Peach was hit the worst...still in the thick of it.

it was a loooooooong, exhausting week.

i went four days without a shower - don't ask....issues with the water pressure in the new house.

and all i really wanted to do was curl up on the couch and have movie night with our tribe.

just one little glitch...we had signed up to help pack a gagillion bags of food for the hungry and homeless aaaaaaallllll the way up in st. paul.

we had a babysitter cancel at the last minute.

perfect opportunity to call it quits.

we tried, Lord...the babysitter can't make it.  la te da.....

i considered it.

but then i also considered how our kids would spend the next 5 weeks.

presents

parties

candy

me, me me....

i love to lavish my babies with all their hearts' desires.

it is such a blessing to show them how much i adore them.

but that's only half of their story.

and it is not okay to leave things there.

the other half is the part where we get to show them how to be kind.

and beautiful.

and how that starts and ends with what we give away.

j and i know that many people can show them this...

but it is our job and our joy to be the ones who model it most in their lives.

we scrambled and found a babysitter.

we got our attitudes in check.

bundled up.

headed out.

45 minutes of driving and singing christmas carols and we were in the mood to do some SERIOUS good.

let's start out in prayer, shall we?

thanking Jesus for the command to love and the opportunity to love...this place has my heart.

they get it.

i will never stop coming here.

i'm telling you...you cannot beat this place.

we got assigned to 5 pound bags of potatoes.

and i'll just go ahead and boast about the fact that our kids ROCKED the job.

little Tulip in a massive bag of potatoes...i thought i might lose her in there!

she crawled right in and tossed potatoes over her shoulder to me like she had been doing it all her life.

these little worker bees...they just kept plugging along.

we can do hard things.

we can fill 400 bags of food when we're not feeling 100%.

we can sacrifice our comfort to rally for people who really need it.

at the end of the night we had packed enough food to feed 10,000 people.

bam!  just like that.

most of the time we're a "do hard work and help people with no expectation of rewards" kind of a household.

however, when momma and daddy are looking at a long night of figuring out the water situation at the house and need a cup of coffee to get us through, we make exceptions and reward hard work with hot chocolate.

after we tucked them all tuckered out into warm beds and thanked the Good Lord for the roof over our heads and the food in our pantry, j and i both agreed that it was worth it.

the gas.

the time.

the babysitter.

small things, really.

let's face it.

giving is hard.

and for me, giving money is one thing.

however, giving time is something ENTIRELY more difficult.

but real treasure isn't usually easy to obtain.

and at the end of the day, one look at our check book and our calendar will tell us what we value.

it won't take long to find out where our focus is.

what we treasure.

it is our home?

things?

our church?

education?

entertainment?

travel?

...people?

i'm so guilty of letting my schedule and my finances be driven by things...stuff....pretty, glittery, temporary objects.

where am i spending my time?

my money?

i can tell you that it takes me about 2 minutes to realize how selfish i can be.

i live with such abundance.
and there are 10,000 people within an hour's drive of my house that are hungry and cold tonight.

i'm not okay with that.

why in the WIDE WORLD do i fuss like a two year old about sharing?

especially when i do stuff like this and realize...

giving my life away is actually fun.

and surprisingly not as difficult as i dramatize it to be.

it's simple, really.

Jesus modeled it.

I will provide for you.

You share with each other.

Some days you will have extra.

Some days you will need help.

if y'all obey what I say, everyone wins and it is heaps of fun.

duh.
and i am whining about what.....?

the world will do a very good job of teaching my kids about stuff.

the world will do just fine showing them what money can buy and giving them ten million reasons why they need it all.
they will want things and technology and vacations and clothes and music and opportunities without my help.
and there will be nothing wrong with that.

but i'm the one with the power to show them that there is more....that those things alone are pretty dim....that we are blessed SO THAT we can hold it all with an open hand...and find out that the great, great treasure is the opportunity to give our lives and our love away.