“Whoever brings blessing will be enriched and one who waters will himself be watered.”
My Dearest MacKynzie,
I can confidently tell you from experience that this is one of the most powerful messages I can leave with you. Your daddy and I have always been generous but it wasn’t until recently that I realized how rewarding blessing others can be. Compared to many families in our country, we would not be considered rich. About two years ago we decided to be very intentional about how we spend our money and our time. We started tithing to our church and put ourselves in a position where we can help others when we feel it is appropriate. Some would consider our lifestyle as sacrificing many ‘things’. ‘Things’ that our culture and commercials and friends tell us that we need to have in order to be happy. But sacrifice is not a word that I would use because I do not feel like any of these ‘things’ truly bring happiness. Yes, there are some ‘things’ that we would like in order to make life easier like a dependable car and a house in a good neighborhood. We want to be able to travel and have money to retire but my message to you is that you can do both. In the past, blessing others felt like such a stressful thing to do because when we gave, we did have to sacrifice. Giving meant that we would have less for groceries or that we wouldn’t be able to pay our own light bill. These last two years we have been able to experience giving and blessing others from a whole different perspective. Since we are being intentional about where we spend our time and money, we get to make a choice instead of a sacrifice. What do I mean by this? When you sit down at the beginning of the month and create a plan for your money and your time it becomes a whole different ballgame. So many people don’t have a plan and just spend aimlessly. They want to eat out so they go, they want a new car so they go into debt, they want to buy clothes and purses and shoes but they are not intentional about how they do it and they freak out at the end of the month because there is no money left for gas. This is not a good way to live your life and this does not put you in a position to bless others. My Pastor Mike told us a great story about the time I started being intentional. He talked about someone that he knew that went out and bought a bunch of polo shirts because they were on sale. A couple of days later someone came into his life that he really wanted to help but he couldn’t because he was wearing his blessing. When you are spending time and money on one thing, it takes away the opportunity to spend it somewhere else. We realized that some fancy clothes, shoes, nails, hairdos and ‘things’ that are important to others were not as important to us because those ’things' that we will not appreciate a week from now will soon be laying in a dumpster with nothing to show. Some of these ‘things’ that we do not really need in our lives were taking away the opportunity to save for our future.. our kids future.. or bless others.
My loving advice to you. Be intentional about where you spend your time and money. Do not buy useless things to make you happy. Dave Ramsey says that happiness is like a bully in the schoolyard. He draws a line in the sand and once you step over he backs up and draws another line. That is what things will do for you in your life. You think this one thing will make you happy so you purchase it and two weeks later you want more. I chose the verse from Proverbs ‘Whoever brings blessing will be enriched and one who waters will himself be watered’ because I believe this is so true. The Kacie interpretation of this is if you bless others you will be enriched (which according to dictionary.com means to supply with abundance of anything desirable). What a great word. By blessing others, you in turn are blessed. If you water yourself, you will be watered. To me that means that what you buy becomes just that... if you buy shoes, you have shoes.. there is nothing spectacular or rewarding about that.
It is ok to reward yourself with nice things, but don’t expect those things to bring you happiness. In the long term, putting yourself in the position to bless others (big or small) is what will bring true happiness. Give it a shot and tell me if I’m wrong.
My love to you and my prayer for an amazing life! Live to inspire <3 to create!
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