There's always some to give

The economy is on everyone's minds these days. Even if you don't want to think about it, you can't get away from it because it seems that the first, last, and middle stories on the newscasts all focus on whether the economy is getting better. It makes for a lot of conversation about money, spending, and debt.

I was talking with someone the other day and we were sharing memories of when we grew up and our perceptions of money. Neither of us felt poor but we did remember things our families did to save money and stretch it as far as we could. One of the experiences we shared was that getting new clothes was rare - and wearing hand-me-downs was normal for just about everyone.

I had "luck" of being the third girl in my family and quite a bit younger than my sisters, so I got a lot of hand-me-downs. I didn't always like it, but it wasn't bad until my mother decided that it would be cute to dress us all like for special occasions. We had usually gotten new dresses for things like Christmas and Easter. At first it was okay because we each still had a new dress and Mom was a terrific seamstress. They were beautiful! and then I out grew mine and wore the next size up and eventually the next one. So I wore the same dress for years! At least by the time I got done with them, they were too worn out for my little sister.

Still, with all of that, we didn't feel poor. I learned an important lesson. I knew what poor was and we weren't poor because there was always enough to share with others. As though seven kids weren't enough, there were always extra people around our house: a cousin that became a foster child, international students, and assorted others. There was always room around for more. You never feel poor if there is enough to share.

My husband experienced that at its deepest in Cuernavaca, Mexico on a World Hunger mission trip. The group went to bible study in the poorest part of town, where most of the people lived in shanties built of odds and ends of discarded wood, tin, cardboard, and anything else useable. Water was scarce, sewage was a ditch dug along side of the road. People lived on very little but they shared. Even there, the hostess had borrowed chairs and boxes for everyone to sit on and served tea and burritos to her guests. It was important for her to share and for the group to eat with her. My husband has never forgotten that meal.

When you have enough to share with someone who truly has a need, you find yourself feeling grateful instead of complaining and blessed instead of put upon. Jesus put it this way,

"Sell your possessions, and give alms (donations to the hungry and poor). Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Luke 12:33-34