Tomorrow is the day we celebrate things we are thankful for, how blessed we are to have food in our cabinets, clothes on our backs, warm beds to snuggle into at the end of the day, clean fresh water at the push of a button or twist of a handle.
How sad that the day after we are thankful, we indulge in a rat race of shoving, hitting, pushing and even biting to grab more “stuff”. How sad that employees leave family functions early, to drive to work so you can shop. How sad that some stores are even thinking about opening on Thanksgiving Day, as yet another day to take your money!
Black Friday may mean profit for the store, bringing them “back in the black” after a tough year, but Black Friday is DARK to me…..
A day celebrating stuff, things, materialism, greedy gimmies and more, more, MORE.
I hate the Greedy Gimmies, and I know this time of year, commercials are specifically designed to entice children to want it, need it, gotta have it! I sent out an email this year to our family saying, NO MORE TOYS. We have enough! They may or may not listen, but I no longer can sit in good conscience and let the STUFF continue to pile up around here. There has to be a better way to celebrate!
Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful 3 gifts for each child in this home, will lie under the tree next month; some from garage sales, others great bargains along the way, but I am MORE thankful, that each child will have a chance to adopt a child close to their age through our church Shoe Box project again this year. That once again we have opportunity to teach them to be blessed by GIVING, not always receiving.
I am not saying you are wrong for planning to go at 2 am Friday morning to shop your Christmas list! Not at ALL, I am a couponer, I LOVE a good deal just like you do. I am simply asking you to be cautious.
I am asking you to think twice before you snatch that electronic, or Barbie Dream House, or Furby, or the last item off the shelf as you see someone else approaching it.
I am asking you to DEFINE NECESSITY.
I am asking you to be His hands and feet, and give to others less fortunate than yourself.
To limit what you spend on yourselves this year.
Do NOT go in the RED to help stores get into the black.
I hear of parents that take out $2000 loans every year for Christmas.
WHY?
What could your child possibly need worth going into debt for?
Why do families insist on buying for Aunt Jane and Uncle Bobby and all 15 cousins?
Can’t you draw names and just give something smaller, so you can all help someone other than yourselves?
I am asking you to DEFINE NECESSITY.
To use that money to help a local charity, to adopt a family in need, to teach your children selflessness rather than selfishness this Holiday season. To guide your children to look outside themselves and the greedy little world they are living in.
I am asking you to look into Compassion International, or to get a catalog from Samartians Purse for gift ideas that keep on giving.
Your $25 can help towards giving a milk cow to a starving family of 9. ONE LESS GIFT for Uncle Frank and Aunt Sue and Cousin Betty, can give a village of 1000, clean drinking water for a lifetime.
We are blind, fat and greedy as a nation. OPEN YOUR EYES to the people hurting around you…..
DEFINE NECESSITY this Black Friday and upcoming Christmas season.
It’s a big world out there, and we are to be HIS hands and feet.
Matthew 25:40 ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these….you did for me.’
~T
4 little Fergusons 