10 Easy Ways to Give to Others
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I watched a newsclip last week about Oprah’s Favorite Things segment of her television program. I’ve never watched the Oprah show, but evidently, once a year, O gives a ton of stuff to everyone present. The segment topic is always a surprise and the show’s audience doesn’t know until it starts that they’ll need a semi to take their loot home.
In theory, it sounds nice, but to watch these people bowing down, jumping up and down, and otherwise having conniptions, actually scared me.
We have become a culture of stuff.
This should not surprise me. I, myself, am guilty of my fair share of “retail therapy.” Even if I’m “getting a good deal,” I’m acquiring stuff. And stuff can enslave us.
My husband, on the other hand, is a true giver. His generosity puts me to shame. And I’m hoping some of it will rub off on me eventually.
Others around me have also been great examples of giving. If you’ve been following the Thirty Day Giving Challenge, you know that there is no shortage of ways that we can give to others.
So, this year, I’m hoping to be a little more open handed in my giving — and a lot less like Ebenezer Scrooge.
Here are 10 easy ways I’ve thought of to give to others:
1. Pass on the gift card to someone who needs it more.
2. Prepare shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.
3. Pay for the order ahead or behind me in line at the drive-thru.
4. Take cookies to my neighbors, even if I don’t know them.
5. Walk out to the garbage collectors with “to go” cups of coffee.
6. Treat someone outside of my household to a big ticket item.
7. Donate a stack of brand new, not ratty, overused books.
8. Take a box of groceries to the local food pantry.
9. Randomly give a $20 bill to a tired looking mom.
10. Give an extra big tip next time we eat out.
I must confess that I’m chicken to do many of these things. They take stepping out of my comfort zone. They take extra effort. They take guts.
But, God has given me much. And why should I not give, too?
This post inspired me to start my own 24 Days Of Giving Challenge! http://www.crazybeautifulisis.com/2010/11/24-days-of-giving-challenge.html
These are all great ideas. I have a question about giving and receiving graciously. Sometimes I have tried to do something generous and people just act like I’m a nut. And I think that if I were on the receiving end of some of the above, I might also be a bit wary. Particularly, I find myself always unsure if people are really serious about watching my kids or if it’s just something you say and whether they expect me to pay them or return the favor…sometimes it just seems more clear-cut to pay someone because the rules of the transaction are mutually understood. Am I just weird?
Do you watch Glenn Beck? He is doing a great series on this right now – in fact, last week he actually showed the clip from the O show with all the people bowing and crying because of the stuff they’d just been given (then crossed over to the people camping out for Black Friday).
I love your ideas. I’d also like add another one which we did once. Pay for the meal (or just the coffee) of a military member/family. Our family was out to eat just over a year ago when we lived in Texas, and a Military dad and his wife and two kids came into the restaurant (we knew because he was in full dress). I said to my husband that I’d always wanted to secretly pay for a military family’s meal, and he was like “let’s do it”. So we told the waitress, she arranged for us to get their bill when she brought ours, and we paid (we had gotten there quite a bit before them). We wrote a note on a napkin thanking them for their service to our country and asked the waitress to please deliver it after we left.
I would have loved to see their reaction (there’s nothing wrong about feeling good about your giving), but we didn’t want them to know it was us, so we decided to let God do the work and didn’t stick around to see the reaction. It was a little price to pay for something so much bigger than they are doing for us.
@Jennifer, This brought tears to my eyes! As a mil wife, I know how much this act must have meant to this family. There have been times during small talk with a stranger, when they express their gratitude for my husbands service. The thanks alone is worth SO much. Even a simple thank you reminds a servicemen his/her sacrifices are worth it! That costs nothing 🙂
@Candace,
OK, now you’ve made ME cry! I make it a point of ALWAYS thanking any service man or woman when I see them (and its not totally rude to interrupt or talk to them), and have been teaching my kids to do the same. I just love hearing the kids (3 & 5) point out someone in uniform and say “hey Mom, there’s a soldier, let’s go thank him/her”.
So thank you for your service as a military wife, as that is a huge sacrifice in and of itself. A very good friend of mine is a mil wife, and I just don’t know how you do it. Amen and God Bless.
shortly after my husband died, I was walking through the grocery store totally baffled what to buy for one single person and I started to cry. A lady asked me if I was okay and I said no, my husband died, and she asked if I need help or anything, i said no but thank you and we went our way. When I was in the line she came up behind me and I didn’t notice but she moved the bar that separates our groceries and told the cashier she was paying for mine too. She didn’t have to, but it made me feel nice that some random stranger cared. of course I also felt kind of embarrassed that she felt the need just because I was crying like a baby in the store. Thanks for reminding me of this.
I wish more people realized that there are more ways to help people than they think they are. Around that same time I was asking my family to come help but they would say they have no money. But you know, sometimes keeping company is a big help.
Even today, 2 years to the day later, I could use the company, at the very least.
@ter@waaoms, I think of you often. Thanks for sharing your beautiful, albeit bittersweet, story. Blessings to you this Christmas!
These are great ideas. So many things are focused on “stuff” and on how much you spend at this time of year. Its nice to see so many kind things that can be done without going broke.
Great ideas! Thanks for sharing them. I especially liked the idea of giving my favorite grocery cashier a Christmas card. I’m sure she would appreciate that.
At a time when things were really tough for us, someone paid the $20 for my groceries. It made me cry and I still thank God that he sent that woman into my life at that time. A small thing can make a big difference.
Our church partners up with the Red Cross’s Christmas for Everyone program every year. Individuals or families can sponsor a child or children–they are given the child’s name, age, sizes, and Christmas wishes. They ask for all gifts to be new, and to commit to spend $35. We sponsor a child for each of ours (we ask for children the same age/gender as our own), and then have our kiddos help us shop for them. It’s a great teaching opportunity! Then, on a Saturday before Christmas, the parents of the kiddos can come to the church to pick up the gifts, have them wrapped by people at the church, and “buy” other gifts from the “bonus gift store” with basically Monopoly money. It’s so much fun to serve as a family on distribution day! We usually help with the child care so that the parents can pick up the gifts and have them wrapped without their kiddos seeing them. What a blast!
One of my favorite ways to give is to pass on a box or bag of gently used (not stained and tattered) children’s clothes to a friend in need. I also enjoy receiving these from time to time! It’s like giving or receiving Christmas at random times of the year!
If you support missionaries or sponsor a child on a monthly basis, consider giving them a double gift in December. Missionaries have a lot of big one-time expenses (conferences, plane tickets, etc.), and that extra gift can help cover those costs 🙂