Monday, November 26, 2007
GIVING IS NOT JUST FOR THANKSGIVING.....
The big Thanksgiving weekend is over and today we start the countdown to Christmas. The commercial folks have thrown enough bones to the shopping hounds to sink the Queen Mary but small income and small retirement programs leave many folks wishing. It makes you wonder how retail can sell for 50% and even more at this time and still keep their ledgers in the black. Could it be they are very greedy with their normal selling prices?
I find more charity requests in my mailbox every day. The ones of us who mail money have to make sure the monies go where they are intended and where most of it gets to where it’s needed. I understand there has to be staffers to organize, project profit, and come up with innovative letters to promote their causes.
This becomes very personal for me as there are so many causes I would like to give more to. I also know this is the best time of the year to bilk people out of cash because they’re in the December give-away mood. I have been raised to give and physically help those who need it. I have also been raised to be careful where my spending goes. Our money is a trade-off for our time so it takes away something we can’t replace. Time spent is time gone. Use it wisely.
So where to spend? I first give to the Service groups and there are many. Everything from the Marine Corp “Toys for Tots” to the DAV, VFW, Paralyzed Vets…..there is a long list of them and I always give because freedom isn’t free. Some of these guys are laying in the VA Hospitals from WWII, Korean, Viet Nam and the dessert wars of the Mid-East.
There are young men and women getting help in our Military hospitals who are from every walk of life. Rich to poor and all in-between……they leave family and comforts to go to a foreign shore so they might have freedom. Many times, they return maimed, arms and legs gone, terrible burns, internal injuries ……but still they go. Freedom isn’t free.
There are charities for every known disease, illness, abandoned children, pregnant unwed mothers or requests from the many denominations of religious groups. I give to them as well. No, I’m not rich and I’m not bragging. This entry is hopeful that there are more of you out there who feel the same responsibility I do for the freedom I enjoy. Some young man or woman had to die for that. Those deaths aren’t pretty and they aren’t in a hospital with family around.
They are in a foreign country in a foreign village fighting a foreign zealot who wants to kill all of us. He is cold at night and hot during the day. No matter his strength or size, he carries at least 50 lbs on his back. There is no shifting or changing the weight except to run, shoot the weapon, take cover and start all over. Their death is bloody, it’s hard and with only their buddies to grieve at the time they are killed.
Freedom isn’t free……..step up the pace and do your part. These men and women realized their responsibility and stepped up to the plate for you, yours, others and me. Don’t go to sleep without a prayer for them and don’t forget to send money to help with the ones who come home in a flag-draped casket or to a ward in an Army Hospital. They leave grieving young widows, their children and family members who don’t always have an income to replace their loss.
That’s where we come in. We can help with all of that. I read once and many times since about a poor widow who came into her place of worship and dropped in her last coin. It was recognized by a man standing by who knew the sacrifice she made. He mentioned it to those around him and said, “This woman will always be remembered for giving all that she had.”
So many give out of their poverty while others with-hold in their plenty. It is in giving sacrificially that the giver and the receiver are blessed. If it is only a “mite” it will get the job done.
No, freedom isn’t free…………
Essentially Esther
I find more charity requests in my mailbox every day. The ones of us who mail money have to make sure the monies go where they are intended and where most of it gets to where it’s needed. I understand there has to be staffers to organize, project profit, and come up with innovative letters to promote their causes.
This becomes very personal for me as there are so many causes I would like to give more to. I also know this is the best time of the year to bilk people out of cash because they’re in the December give-away mood. I have been raised to give and physically help those who need it. I have also been raised to be careful where my spending goes. Our money is a trade-off for our time so it takes away something we can’t replace. Time spent is time gone. Use it wisely.
So where to spend? I first give to the Service groups and there are many. Everything from the Marine Corp “Toys for Tots” to the DAV, VFW, Paralyzed Vets…..there is a long list of them and I always give because freedom isn’t free. Some of these guys are laying in the VA Hospitals from WWII, Korean, Viet Nam and the dessert wars of the Mid-East.
There are young men and women getting help in our Military hospitals who are from every walk of life. Rich to poor and all in-between……they leave family and comforts to go to a foreign shore so they might have freedom. Many times, they return maimed, arms and legs gone, terrible burns, internal injuries ……but still they go. Freedom isn’t free.
There are charities for every known disease, illness, abandoned children, pregnant unwed mothers or requests from the many denominations of religious groups. I give to them as well. No, I’m not rich and I’m not bragging. This entry is hopeful that there are more of you out there who feel the same responsibility I do for the freedom I enjoy. Some young man or woman had to die for that. Those deaths aren’t pretty and they aren’t in a hospital with family around.
They are in a foreign country in a foreign village fighting a foreign zealot who wants to kill all of us. He is cold at night and hot during the day. No matter his strength or size, he carries at least 50 lbs on his back. There is no shifting or changing the weight except to run, shoot the weapon, take cover and start all over. Their death is bloody, it’s hard and with only their buddies to grieve at the time they are killed.
Freedom isn’t free……..step up the pace and do your part. These men and women realized their responsibility and stepped up to the plate for you, yours, others and me. Don’t go to sleep without a prayer for them and don’t forget to send money to help with the ones who come home in a flag-draped casket or to a ward in an Army Hospital. They leave grieving young widows, their children and family members who don’t always have an income to replace their loss.
That’s where we come in. We can help with all of that. I read once and many times since about a poor widow who came into her place of worship and dropped in her last coin. It was recognized by a man standing by who knew the sacrifice she made. He mentioned it to those around him and said, “This woman will always be remembered for giving all that she had.”
So many give out of their poverty while others with-hold in their plenty. It is in giving sacrificially that the giver and the receiver are blessed. If it is only a “mite” it will get the job done.
No, freedom isn’t free…………
Essentially Esther
