The Gift Of Giving

Remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.

Deuteronomy 8:18

Guess What?

It’s that time of year again!

CHRISTmas is here!!!!! 

Well not quite yet, but it is quite literally right around the corner.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS for several reasons.

One is because we get the opportunity to give gifts in Christ’s name to others.

Another reason is that it seems that this time of year a lot of people have a very giving heart.  They give more of their time to others.

And lastly, I get to play the Grinch (if I want to)!! I absolutely love dressing up as the Grinch and walking around.  I might just get dressed up on Christmas eve and go shopping!!!! 

How much fun would that be???????

I absolutely love giving the gift of laughter to others.

but lately I have been struggling with giving that gift as much as I used to.

Maybe it’s because I think that I need to be seen as a professional business owner that has all of his ducks in a row and knows what I’m doing.

Or maybe….

It’s because some of my humor is not quite as clean as it should be.  To be honest I used to be able to go into a shop, start telling a joke and truckers would say, “Hey, hey, hey, watch your mouth there are mechanics in here.” lol Just kidding (kind of)

Anyways……..

The thing is that I love sharing WEALTH with others.

But sometimes we get confused on what wealth really is. I’m here to help you figure out what wealth is to you.

Because wealth is different to everyone.

Websters defines it as an “abundance of valuable material possessions OR resources”

Most people don’t read that one little word, “OR”

They see possessions and think that wealth is having a TON of money! Or a TON of stuff!

Most people don’t see wealth as a big picture like God does.

To me Wealth is a mindset.

If you believe that you are wealthy you are.

Even if you have no $$, or no time, or no family, or no friends, or you literally have 0 possessions. You can still be wealthy.

Honestly when we were a single income family that was living off of $28,000 annually. We were wealthy.

Simply because we had a good marriage, happy kids, enough food for every meal, a warm home, and family close by.

Rich and wealthy are NOT the same things.

And that right there is exactly why God didn’t say, “Give when you are rich. Because God is who the money comes from.”

That would have a whole different meaning. Wouldn’t it?

Instead, God gave us the direction to give back because he is the reason we have the ability to produce WEALTH.

You are probably reading this right now thinking, “What the heck is Dan smoking right now, he is all over the board.” Lol

Give me just a second, I promise I’m getting ready to tie it all together, wrap it up and put a pretty bow on it for you.

When God gave the guidance to remember him when we give, because he is the reason we are able to do everything we do.

When I share laughter by dressing up at the grinch I get to do it for God!

When we give gifts to others for Christmas, think of God when you buy the gift, think of him as you wrap the gifts. And most of all think of God as you open the gifts you receive.

Lastly, When you receive any gift, no matter what time of year it is, think of God and how you can use the gift to move you forward in your purpose he has given you.

 

Take Action

I pretty much just gave you the take action piece of this devotional.

As you purchase / make / build the gifts you are giving to others, think of God.

As you receive gifts, think of God.

Share your wealth. And remember that wealth is not $$$!!!  It could be wisdom, patience, love, laughter, an experience, anything you find value in.

Prayer

Lord, God, Father in heaven. We would like to start by saying THANK YOU.  Thank you for sending your son into this amazing world to save us from our sins.  Thank you for giving us the ability to create our own wealth.  Thank you for letting us know that wealth and $$$ are not the same thing. Thank you for giving me the ability to give to others.  Thank you for helping us to see you in the gifts that we receive throughout our life on this earth.  God I do have one small favor to ask. If you could be with our tribe I would really appreciate it.  God if you could simply bless their lives in ways they never imagined possible that would be amazing. They deserve so much because they aren’t scared to share their faith in you with the world. Thank you for our tribe.

We ask all these things in your precious Son’s name.

Amen.

Merry Christmas!!!!

A Little More

So many stories come to mind as I wrote this devotional!

But the one that I wanted to tell you about is about the time that Jenna convinced me to dress up as the Grinch for the first time for our little elementary school Christmas program.

Then I realized that I just told you about that one a few weeks ago.  (man, I’m getting old if I want to keep telling you the same stories. Lol)

Then I thought about and decided that I would tell you about the second time I dressed up as the grinch for their program.

This time the kid’s kind of expected the Grinch to show up!!

I mean he was there last year, why wouldn’t he come back this year????

As I sat in a little room backstage, Jenna was helping me get all dressed up again.

But this year, I added a few upgrades to the grinch costume.  I bought hairy Green pants, and a hairy green shirt.  I had a full green suit under my Santa coat, and we found some amazing Green long fingered gloves.

My heart started racing as the kids neared the end of their performance.

They broke out into the song, how the Grinch Stole Christmas. And I did it again. But this time instead of walking out.

I pranced.

Yes you read that right.  I pranced out behind the 5th graders as they sang the song and started picking on them.  I took one kids Santa hat and traded it for mine.

Mine went all the way over his face and covered his eyes.

I found one of my kids and acted like I was picking fleas out of his hair. And then pretended to flick them on other kids.

I continued to play with all of the kids throughout the song!

It was so much FUN!!! 

Then I ran to the back of the room with all of the parents. and just looked at the kids.  With a funny look on my face. as Grinch-like as possible.  When they finished the song I Grinch walked back up to the front. Right in front of all the kids and said in my best possible grinch voice, “I’m the GRI, GRIN, GRINCH! Are you Scared???”

Then with the biggest smile I have ever had, I smiled at all of the kids so that they could see I was only kidding with them!

They all broke down laughing! 

Afterwards I went and sat in Santa’s chair and had a BLAST talking to the kids.

After I got done with all the kids, my parents came over and took a picture with me! 

It was an absolute blast to give that gift to all of the kids and their parents! and to myself!!

When you get the chance to have fun, even if it makes you feel like a fool, DO IT!!!!

    Prayer

    Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts.  We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us.  We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us.  And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.

    We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name

    Amen

    A Little More

     The other day I got a call from one of our clients.

    I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.

    “Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”

    My smile immediately vanished.

    I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.

    So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?” 

    To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.

    They gave me the details.

    My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.

    But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.

    My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.

    I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.

    so……

    I made sure not to smile when I made the call.  I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!

    That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.

    Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!

    Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal.  I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad. 

    Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.

    The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.

    No problem.  Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.

    Well……..

    After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.

    Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.

    I told him that I would NOT make any promises.

    But my team went to work!

    Guess what????

    We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.

    My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.

    Here’s the point of all this.

    When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.

    That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.

    Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol

    Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!

    Dan Greer