Before I tell you about this link up and share with you what we did this week, I want to tell you a story:

A mother in her early thirties stands in line at a grocery store ready to checkout. She glances at her groceries on the conveyer belt silently adding their cost up in her head.  The total will come close to the cash she has in her wallet. It might go a little over. She hopes it won’t.

When the cashier finally finishes ringing up the total , it is a little over what she has.

“ I think we can do without this”, she says handing one of the items to the cashier.

“All right,” responded the cashier looking as frustrated as the mother before her. She wishes she could make the groceries fit the money the mom has in her wallet. It isn’t as if the mom is purchasing junk food or extras. The bagging area holds fruit, milk, inexpensive meat, vegetables, and a couple loaves of bread. Groceries the three children standing beside her are going to need grow and be healthy.

The mother hands over what remains in her wallet on this day near end on the month. She hopes that this won’t happen again. It is embarrassing and humbling.  She hates that her girls have to see this.

This mom works hard to provide for her girls. She spends her days teaching other people’s children in a public school. She pinches her pennies and uses coupons. She makes sure her girls’ basic needs are met. There just isn’t money for extras and sometimes at the end of the month there just isn’t enough for  all basics.

This is a true story.

I was one of those little girls standing beside my mom in the grocery line. It was the mid-seventies and grocery stores took only cash where we lived. You could only spend what you had. We had the basics. My mom made sure of that, but there just weren’t extras.

Even with tight times my mom taught us that there were others much worse off. She instilled in us the need to give them. I so want Jdaniel to become someone who looks out for others too.

How this link up works:

There are so many in need during this Christmas season. I am hoping you will join me in giving to others in your community or beyond this holiday season.

Each week I will feature a way my family is giving to our community during the month of December. I am hoping each of you will take the time to not only give to your community, but to write a blog post about it. If you do, I would love for you to link it up below and include a link to this post or this badge.

My posts will go on Sundays, but feel free to share your giving post any day of the week that works for you. The link up will be available during the rest of the month of December and will appear on every Giving Others Christmas post.

What did we do?

This week JDaniel and I just went to the grocery store to give to others this week. BI-Lo is the grocery store closest to our house and it also happens to be a big supporter of our favorite food pantry at the Golden Strip Emergency Relief and Resource Agency.

BI-LO has put together food boxes for you to buy filled with wonderful things that the food pantry visitor will need.  You just purchase the box and they deliver it to the Golden Strip Emergency Relief and Resource Agency for you.

I give to the food pantry monthly and love that BI-Lo has made it easier to purchase and drop off the food for  me.

Thankfully we haven’t needed to visit the food pantry ourselves, but there are many this year that have. They have lots of visitors.

What have you done to give Christmas to others this week?