|
Bell Ringer Remember the Bell Ringer? Imagine going into a grocery store if the clerk rings up the sale, puts your hard-earned money into the register, and then places your groceries under the counter and asks you to leave without them. How would you respond? I imagine that most of us would throw a fit, screaming of the injustice of paying but receiving nothing. There might even be an ensuing fight. In contrast, imagine walking by the Salvation Army bell-ringer at Christmastime and putting in $20. Would you be upset if the bell-ringer gave you nothing in return? Not at all! For you give to the bell-ringer, expecting nothing in return, a gift from the heart. There is, sad to say, very little giving within many Christian homes that has its origin in the goodness of a heart turned toward Christ. When good is done for another, and anger occurs because of lack of response, it only proves that the good was not done from the heart without strings attached. It reveals that we paid and expected something in return. This kind of giving is bondage. There is no joy in it. Giving is a delight if we desire nothing in return. I pray that God would give us a bell-ringer marriage. Ó
Copyright Abiding Life Ministries International http://www.abidinglife.com |
|