Giving Up

Working at Target in the evenings, it sure is beginning to look a lot like Christmas! The store is decorated from floor to ceiling and many customers have already begun their shopping for the perfect Christmas gift. There's a BIG difference in the customers who come through the checkout lanes with carts full of TOYS and those that are there just doing the tedious weekly shopping. The toys, the gifts, somehow bring out happy smiles and definitely up the niceness quotient to levels that make this job more than tolerable. :) I just LOVE seeing what everyone has picked out for their kiddos! So fun! And on top of that there is the added bonus (trying to think of the cup half full now) of window shopping or maybe I should say checkout shopping, while I'm working. lol! One thing that has begun to slowly drain that half full cup feeling is just the idea of how much money we spend on things like pop. Seriously. America drinks A LOT of pop.

Gallons a week come through my checkout lane alone, and that doesn't include the other kinds of drinks we buy. Juice boxes, Juice pouches, Iced-teas, Crazy Caffeinated Drinks, Power-up Drinks, etc. Being an avid supporter of Samaritan's Purse, I'm well aware of the need our brothers and sisters around the world have for just one thing - one thing we all take for granted.

Water.

Clean drinking water.

Water that is so essential to preventing an onslaught of diseases, but even more so, it gives that family a sense of esteem. They go from worry over giving their children dirty water, to JOY in providing them with the BEST their little bodies need to grow strong. Because we have it readily available to us, at any time, I think we just start to forget how good it is for us.

And before I get too far along, let me just say I include myself in this. Guilty! But, I've decided to pledge for the next year to be pop free. I know it isn't New Year's and I shouldn't be making resolutions yet, but I'm not waiting until January to start doing what I know God will bless today. So I'm taking the plunge. I'm gonna be honest. I drink a LOT of pop. It's the one thing I can't seem to let go of despite my best efforts. I can go weeks without it, and then WHAM I'm off the wagon and sucking down glass after glass of the carbonated fizz. It is going to be hard, very hard. But, I think I need the reminder to not only drink more water, but to be thankful that I can at any time fill a glass up with pure H2O and drink until I am refreshed. I would love to have you praying with me for others to give toward helping those who don't have this luxury. That's right. Clean water in some nations is truly a luxury.

There are many organizations that help drill wells for clean water, but Samaritan's Purse is our family's favorite. Right now they have their 2010 Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog on-line. They have listed "gifts that can bring the hope of Christ to a hurting world." Three of those gifts are specifically for water. Gift numbers 24, 30, and 33. Giving toward any of these will ensure the gift of clean water to a family that is right now, right now, fearing the very water they drink.

And maybe some of you reading this would like to take the pop-free challenge with me? Maybe you'll decide to forgo pop and invest that money in the lives of those who are hurting? Our change makes changes! Pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, they all add up to dollars. Even pocket change collected over the course of a year begins to add up to real savings. Do you know how much your family spends on sugary drinks each month? Each year?

Yah, me either. But, I think its time I figure that out, because that alone could be the place God wants to work in us and through us. Working in us to make our bodies healthier and stronger. Working through us by freeing up that change and investing it into His kingdom changes. I know it is only a little from our family budget, but that's the little God wants us to give up to help bring our son home. Not just giving up but Giving UP to Him. :) Yes, I think that's the least of sacrifices I can give, I'm sure there's more to come. He is dealing with me daily and refining the parts of me that He wants to change. It is humbling and challenging and rewarding all rolled up in one.

I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward. ~ Jesus Christ

Sometimes, that's all I need to make a life-changing decision permanent - the truth. God's truth.