Drop one of more coins in your UTO Blue Box this week
as you remember and give thanks for those who have positively impacted
your life and for those who love you without condition: teachers,
parents, neighbors, and children.
Visit United Thank Offering online and on Facebook.
It is so
easy to put a coin in your United Thank Offering Blue Box: open the
wallet, feel around in the change pocket, take out a penny or two or
three, drop them in the Blue Box. Countless people have put coins in the
box in just that manner, but many more of them have found something
else; a joy, a sense of peace, even a way of living that has radically
changed their attitudes about stewardship and shown them a clearer path
to following Christ's commandments to help the needy.
Many
ideas to help women feel empowered in the past have included taking
special classes or meditating or finding rituals and spaces of quiet to
try to bring joy and peace into one's life. These have all been tried
over the years. Out of many self-help ideas that were generated, this
one seemed to stand out: that is, to "keep a record for a week or so of
things or people that one is thankful for". Wow, how easy! Really, it
isn't a new concept.
One woman at a
recent seminar shared how this singular action of empowerment changed
her life. She wrote her first entry recording her thanks on a scrap of
binder paper. The items were the usual list of thanks like being
thankful for her home, children, husband, and garden. She continued to
record her thanks daily and soon bought a bound book to date and record
her thanksgivings and blessings. Pretty soon she started not just
listing her thanks but thinking about "why" she gave thanks and
recording those thoughts. Eventually she started "paying it forward" in
small ways like paying for a soldier who was having lunch in the same
restaurant or in the Starbucks line. Soon she was committing "random
acts of kindness" like delivering food to the sick or senior citizens
homes. She did most of this without thought of a return but just because
it "felt good". Her husband and friends noticed that she seemed
happier, more positive, was smiling more and they also wondered what
change had occurred in her life.
She
found that practicing thankfulness and gratitude increased her
thankfulness and gratitude; that the more she gave, the more she herself
felt gratitude and thankful. Much of her giving was monetary, coins and
bills of various denominations all put in the Blue Box over the years.
But, she also found she was giving of her time and her talents to others
as a way for her to give thanks.
Visit United Thank Offering online and on Facebook.
