Gifts and Kindness

Homemade Christmas gifts are a tradition on my husband's side of the family.  This year our get-together was quickly planned, so I did something really quick and easy.  I made room fresheners and Thieves Cleaner (using Young Living Essential Oils) from recipes I found at mamanatural.com.  I also added a other oils to make some new scents. I found the bottles on Amazon from a store called Everything4Oils.  The amber glass spray bottles can be used for many things.

Another homemade gift was a little ramekin filled with coffee beans and a tealight candle.  When you burned the candle, the heat made the coffee beans' aroma fill the air.

My mother-in-law gave us homemade apricot jelly (my husband's favorite) and plum jelly (my favorite, plus a bag of pecans.

Another sister-in-law made cute shadowbox frames that had scrapbook paper backgrounds, foam/glittered balls in them with a wintery saying.  I can't remember what mine said at the moment and I packed it away yesterday, but the sticker letters were on the outside.  It was so cute!  Another one she did had jingle bells in it and the letters said "Jingle all the way".  Very cute idea!

Speaking of gifts, gifts show kindness.  It's customary to give gifts at Christmas, for birthdays, and other holidays and occasions, but some are just random.  I love the idea of random acts of kindness, don't you?  It doesn't have to be a special time to be kind.  Being kind can happen any day of the year.  That's what makes them special.

Last night our family (all six of us) and one of our nieces were headed to a basketball game. We left early so that we could eat Mexican food at one of our favorite places - a special request by our oldest son who wanted to eat there before he heads back to college Saturday.  When the time came to leave, my husband asked for the check.  The waitress said that our meal had already been paid for!  It was such a surprise to us because we honestly had no idea who might have paid for it!  A special act of kindness done randomly (or perhaps not randomly for the nice person who did it, but for us it was very random.).

Be kind to someone today.  Find a way to give of yourself to others.  It doesn't have to be huge - like paying for seven meals at a restaurant.  It can be something small.  Just take the time to do something for someone.  You'll be glad that you did.

Random Living

Yesterday I had the opportunity to judge FCCLA Star Events. I enjoyed listening to several young junior high students give their illustrated talks about many different subjects. One young lady did a talk about the use of slang. It was interesting and made the other two judges and I think about the words we use ourselves. The girl pointed out the differences in the use of slang throughout the generations.

I'm not sure this word is considered slang, but I do believe it's use has increased dramatically over the last few years. The word is RANDOM. If you see pictures on Facebook, the albums are often titled as "Random" or "Randomness". Blogs feature a weekly post that can be found in the "Random" category. My son will hear one of us say something and comment, "That was random!" What it means (in "my" language interpretation, anyway) is "That was "out-of-the-blue"!

Every day, most likely, we will all most likely have a "random" thought or a "random" action. It's something we do "out-of-the-blue" or as a "spur-of-the-moment" thing. That makes life more spontaneous - more interesting. And while randomness in that sense is fun and exciting, our lives must not be lived in totally random fashion. No. Our lives must be lived with a certain purpose in mind.

God created us for a purpose. He created us for more than just living our lives randomly and according to our wants and desires.He created us for His purpose. We are His.

"Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture." Psalm 100:3

Jesus came to this earth with a certain purpose.  He was sent by God to do His Will.

"...just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:17

Jesus's purpose was to do His Father's will.  As Christians and followers of Jesus, we do must do our Heavenly Father's Will.  And what is that?

1.  Serve Others

2.  Give Our Lives for Others (Not that we must die, but that we must devote ourselves to helping others.)

3.  Save the Lost

Random pictures, posts, and thoughts are fun and spontaneous.  But, let's remember to live our lives with a PURPOSE and not just randomly.  Let's remember WHOSE we are and WHO we are following and WHAT our purpose is as we live out our lives here on this earth.