Viewing entries tagged
blessed

Learn to Receive


But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
— Matthew 6:3-4
In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.
— Acts 20:35

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My Dearest MacKynzie,

I am writing this letter to you today because this is something I want to work on in my own life. I always gladly give time, money, complements and support. I give to my kids, husband, friends, church and strangers. But when someone tries to give to me I feel awkward and ashamed. There are two bible verses above. As I was thinking about this lesson and digging deeper into my own struggle to receive without guilt, I picked up my bible and read. I saw verse after verse about giving: 
‘But when you give to the needy’
'It is more blessed to give than to receive’
'Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered’


Receiving is uncomfortable and vulnerable. Of corse I like getting gifts and complements but how can I get better at receiving without feeling awkward and guilty? Sometimes it’s crazy how God works. You know how your attention is on something and all of a sudden you see it everywhere? My husband and I were looking to buy a jeep. The second we got the money I was seeing Jeeps for sale of all shapes, sizes and colors on the corner of every block. How did these all magically appear, I had never noticed them before. While I was thinking about this topic (receiving.. not jeeps lol) I turned on a podcast. One of my favorites is The Business Boutique. Christy Wright was talking about her struggle with receiving. I thought about a book I recently read called ’The Go Giver’. It talks about the five laws of stratospheric success.. guess what the last law is? The Law of Receptivity - The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.  I thought about my own giving and how amazing it is to give to someone that receives gratefully. No one likes to give to someone that does not receive with joy. Then I thought about others. I bet many others feel the same way I do. How can they feel the joy and get the benefits of giving without someone there to receive the gift? I realized that it’s a circle. In order to get the full benefits of giving, I must also learn to receive. Receiving isn’t only a blessing to you, it’s a blessing to the giver as well. It is a full circle of blessing... 2 for 1. Think about ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive’. Receiving isn’t about me at all, it is about the giver. 

My loving advice to you. Do not feel guilty completing the circle. Celebrate the gift (complement or time) that has been given to you. By accepting the gift gratefully and without guilt, you are able to glorify the blessing that you’ve also given to them. 

My love to you and my prayer for an amazing life!  Live to inspire <3 to create!

The purpose of sharing this letter is to inspire you. Please ‘like’ if you found this article useful and please ‘share’ if you want to help inspire others. You never know who is watching ;)

 

Bless Others


Whoever brings blessing will be enriched and one who waters will himself be watered.
— Proverbs 11:25

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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!

The purpose of sharing this letter is to inspire you. Please ‘like’ if you found this article useful and please ‘share’ if you want to help inspire others. You never know who is watching ;)