On This Black Friday

  Thanksgiving is a week away! 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”. 

  You know what I am talking about:

BLACK FRIDAY.

  How sad that employees leave family functions early, to drive to work so people 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 seems 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!

   Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful 3 gifts for each child in this home, will be placed 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.

Did you know that we don’t buy gifts for anyone other than our kids?  Dale and I don’t get each other anything. Why? We don’t need a darn thing!  Neither do our parents, or our cousins, or our friends.  We will make goodie platters, or just spend time with them.  They don’t NEED anything either.  This makes November a lot less hectic and saves all of us a ton of money.

  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, and bargain shopper, I LOVE a good deal just like you do.  I am simply asking you to Be Cautious when you go.  (Maybe this would be a great time for you to shop for the family in need you adopted so you can bless their socks off with something extra great….)  

Ask yourself some hard questions this year:

 In a World that is in desperate need of food, clothing, clean water, shelter, the love of Christ Jesus….is it truly necessary to use $800 towards a list of family and friends that really would be fine without your gift?  

  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 the hands and feet of Christ, to 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.  Cut the fat.  Let’s get back to basics.

Lets work harder this year on being the hands and feet of Jesus.

  To use that money you set aside for gifts to help a local charity, buy a ton of groceries for the food bank, to adopt a family in need.  To teach your children selflessness rather than selfishness this Holiday season.  To guide them 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 Samaritans 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, 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, we need to OPEN OUR EYES to the people hurting around us…..

  We need to DEFINE NECESSITY this Black Friday and upcoming Christmas season.

  It’s a big world out there, and it’s time we start seeing beyond ourselves.

I’ve had it.  I quit Christmas.

Give me CHRISTmas; so that everything may filter through HIM.

  Matthew 25:40  ’I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these….you did for me.’