Spoiler alert-This post does not coincide with Mariah Carey’s hit Christmas song. I’ve come to realize that Mariah Carey and I have different ideas about Christmas.

2nd spoiler alert-It’s not a hippopotamus.

I was thinking about all the people I want to get gifts for this year. The list is small, and I decided last year that I am not doing gifts out of obligation. I will not get someone a gift just because I’m worried they might get one for me and I won’t have one to give back (also, I’m a single mom and nobody is expecting anything from me!). That’s not what Christmas is to me. Christmas to me is giving freely and expecting nothing in return. Christmas is giving because of the joy it brings to give someone something special. Not an obligatory piece of junk that they now have to figure out what to do with. It’s not meant to break the bank in order to people please. It’s about having an open heart and taking the opportunity to really think about someone and what they could use in their life right now, or what would brighten their spirits. It’s about showing appreciation. Above all, it’s a representation of love. Not obligation.

God gave us the greatest gift and He didn’t do it out of obligation. The gift He gave to us came from a place of pure love.

I was thinking about what gift would I like to offer to God this year… as I was thinking about how selfless I was going to be in my gift to God, I thought….well….what gift do I want to ask him for this year?

…Then I remembered…

There has been a gift that God has been putting in my lap for a couple months now. Asking me to open it, and I won’t. Not that I won’t, just that I don’t always want to put the work in that his gifts can require.

It’s Charity.

It has come up in my life so many times the past couple of months. The word charity keeps popping up in everything I do.

I met with some girls from church. They did not know about my run-ins with Charity for the past couple months and they shared a lesson with me, the focus was Charity. They also talked about Jonah and the whale and how God kept asking Jonah to go preach to people that Jonah didn’t want to preach to and so he tried to run away. He ended up getting swallowed by a whale and then spit back out. To make a great story short, he preached to the people that he didn’t want to preach to in the first place. It required charity.

Let’s go back to the image of God placing the gift of charity in my lap. I have been sitting here with this gift in my lap, knowing that it holds immense value and it will never fail. It will continuously improve my life and will increase my happiness!!! I feel like I’ve been staring at God, then looking back at this gift and thinking, “wow, that’s so nice of you, thanks for the gift…so…What is it?”

Here’s what I’ve come up with; Charity is wanting to do something out of pure intentions, it is genuinely caring about others, to their core. Charity is loving people as gods and goddesses.

Charity does not come with strings attached.

You love someone regardless of what they’ve done. Charity is seeing the soul of another person and divinely appreciating them. It means to search for their soul and weed out all of the junk sitting on top of it.

It is the gift to see all the people you come in contact with, CLEARLY. Not just their outer appearance, not just seeing what other people have told you to see in them. Charity is looking at them as a heavenly being.

Charity is seeing with a new set of eyes.

Charity is having love for someone when it doesn’t come naturally. It is loving someone that is not easy to love, and that is why it takes faith and hope.

It does not mean putting yourself in bad situations to help someone out, it does not mean disregarding your boundaries for the sake of someone else. Charity does not mean returning to a relationship that was unhealthy for you. Charity means that you love deeply and purely. The way Christ did.

How is charity a gift? If it is the most pure form of love, and love is purifying, it is the ultimate gift to purify us.

If you think a spa day is nice-try a Charity day. It cost less and offers more. It will do more for your health and well being than any supplement or regimen will.

All things fail, except charity.

Paul gets it, he wrote about it in 1 Corinthians 13:1-7

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not ^acharity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And though I have the gift of ^aprophecy, and understand all ^bmysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the ^apoor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

4 ^aCharity ^bsuffereth long, and is ^ckind; charity ^denvieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

5 Doth not behave itself ^aunseemly, ^bseeketh not her own, is not easily ^cprovoked, thinketh no evil;

6 Rejoiceth not in ^ainiquity, but rejoiceth in the ^btruth;

7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

So if charity is the invincible gift-why would anyone hesitate to accept it!?

Here’s the thing-Charity takes effort.

One year, when I was a little girl, I got my best friend one of those disposable cameras that you take to the store to get your pictures developed when you’re done with it. We were about to go to camp together and I thought she would love it. She opened it and then said “You got me a gift I have to pay for!?”

I feel like Charity is similar, but in the end, the payout is way better than 25 blurry pictures.

Charity has a few different prices, the more you are willing to pay, the better the quality of your pictures. Some of the prices are;

1. Vulnerability
2. Ego
3. Heart
4. Pride
   

I’m excited to use the gift I’ve been given. It took some convincing, but I’m willing to invest whatever I have.

What gift are you hoping for this year?

Please email me at edolinarandel@gmail.com or find the facebook group “Good Grief!” at

https://www.facebook.com/groups/396957635089523

I would truly love to hear from you.