My birthday gift to Jesus

I mentioned in my Christmas traditions post last month, that on Christmas Eve, our family sits down together and tells what we each intend to give to Jesus in the upcoming year.  We write down what's in our heart and put the slip of paper in a box to keep all year.  Well, I was really excited about the idea the Lord gave me.  Granted, it is not super creative or anything.  I just decided that I would be much more intentional about serving others this year.  I thought it would be great if each month we pray about and plan as a family at least one thing to do for others.  It might be a service project, or a gift for someone in need.  Who knows?  Pick one thing that we commit to do and put on the calendar. 

We did our first one this past Saturday!  God had given me the idea one day last year as I sat waiting for some blankets to finish their cycle at the laundromat.  I looked around at the people washing clothes that day.  Many of them looked like they could use some help financially, and doing laundry at the laundromat is really more expensive than I expected!  I remembered the big jar of change we have at our house.  We normally use it for a vacation, or to give away if the Lord leads us to.  Anyway, I thought, how fun would it be to bring a bunch of quarters and hand them out to people at the laundromat!  It would be just a little help, but it would be a fun surprise for them. 

Finally, Saturday was the day to do it!  We filled up sandwich bags with about five dollars in quarters a piece, and added a gospel tract to each one.  Then, Cassandra and the boys and I headed to the laundromat.  Here we are getting ready to go in...

Ben (in the red coat) doesn't look the happiest.  He wasn't so sure about having to approach strangers.  Actually, I think we were all a little nervous.  But it is good to get out of our comfort zones, and this was an easy way to do it!  The people were happy to get the little baggies, and we gave some extra quarters to the little kids that were there to play some arcade games.  When we left, the kids wanted to do it some more!

So, we DID do more.  We had some bags left over and went to another laundromat--one in our own community.  An interesting thing happened at this one.  At the first place, the people looked like they could use the quarters, and they were happy to accept them.  At the second, I could tell the difference in the clientel right away.  Many of them did not accept the quarters!  They just said, "Thanks, but I don't need them."  Huh...  I thought, really?  Even if I had the money, if someone wanted to give me five dollars, I would hope I would be happy to take it.  Oh well, we gave to the ones who would accept, and then headed home.

We thought about it later, and realized that there is a tale of two laundromats here, with a parallel to real life.  Isn't it just like reality, when someone is confronted with the gospel message, that so often those who have nothing can appreciate the gracious offer of salvation and accept it, while those who feel full and satisfied with their lot in life do not feel the need to accept God's gift of salvation and follow Him?    They figure, I'm doing fine without Him.  Why would I need Him?  We thought that was interesting to think about...

Anyway, we did have a lot of fun, and the kids enjoyed it too!  You might want to bag up some change and take a little trip to a laundromat near you...

I'll let you know what we decide to do for Jesus next month!