For many, Thanksgiving is a time to buy too much food, prepare an insanely amount of food and then consume much more food than is necessary to live. Also, this day is a day to prepare an elaborate and impressive display of food for family and friends to be awed by. Then Thanksgiving Thursday is followed by Black Friday where people get up early in the morning to jostle old ladies out of the way in search of a great sale on Christmas gifts.
Don’t call me Scrooge, but it all sounds like madness to me!
What would happen if each family set aside one tenth of what they normally spend for the Thanksgiving meal and another one tenth of what they normally spend on Black Friday and they donated that to a local charity helping the homeless? That act of small sacrifice would have a dramatic impact on service to the less fortunate in our communities.
Now suppose we singles took one tenth of the energies we “waste” bemoaning the fact that we are still single at the beginning of another holiday season and we focused instead on uplifting one person? What kind of impact could we have? It seems like many of us Christian singles “enjoy” being depressed or emotionally down during the holidays. We wear our loneliness blues as a badge of honor.
Don’t call me scrooge, but it all sounds like madness to me!
I challenge every Christian single person who reads this blog to dedicate a portion of their time, energies and attention to making another single person’s holiday special.
- Send an uninvited e-card.
- Take someone out to lunch or dinner without any expectation of a reward.
- Call someone that you haven’t spoken with in a while and let them know you were thinking about them.
- Offer to do something nice with no strings attached.
- Be the bigger person and apologize to that person whose relationship with you fell apart.
There are literally a million things each of us could do. Let’s make this holiday season less about what we don’t have or about who is not in our lives and more about putting a smile on a fellow single person’s face.
And oh by the way, so you won’t call me Scrooge, have a happy Thanksgiving!
2 comments:
OK so I won't call you scrooge but that does not change the fact that over 6,000 people were awaiting outside the mall to get in on the day after Christmas (smile).
Great challenge but as for me I have given up on extending invites and sending e-cards, etc. because
I don't think anyone is buying the "no strings attached"; or simply because I care spill. I will still continue to do things in secret that bless others and it is not that I do things for this purpose but God said, "He would reward me openly"...
Writer, continue to pray for me in the building relationship arena…
Kevin,
I have opened my home several times during the holidays or just for someone in need numerous times.
If I have funds to donate, I do.
But as for that call to the other person where our relationship fell apart, that is a tough one.
Just when I thought I had reached a point where I am comfortable speaking with the "X", he comes off with something stupid.
I feel I am too old to play the button game. I hope that one day we can discuss life, kids and each other without blaming anyone for anything and just be thankfull for where we are and how far we've come.
LBJ"s"
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