Tuesday, January 3, 2012

3:05 PM - No comments

What Do You “Need?”


Wherever you are as you read this… right this minute… do me a small favor. Stop what you’re doing… stop reading… and take just a moment… one moment… and take a look around yourself. Look at what you have. Look at what you’re blessed with. Think about what you need. Not what you want… but what you truly “need.” What do you want for? Food? Shelter? A new car? An X-Box? An IPhone? Now what do you need for?

It’s so easy to forget that many… if not most of us… do not need for much. But none of us don’t want more. Now granted, some of our wants aren’t necessarily selfish, but sometimes it only takes a simple gesture to show us our blessings.

We have a local charity called Kids to Love (http://www.kidstolove.org/) that works with foster children. It was founded by a local television personality who was raised in foster care until being adopted through the Tennessee Baptist Children’s home in Memphis.

While Christmas is a huge undertaking for this group, they are active year round. They ensure the kids have school supplies, a Foster Parent Program, Forever Families, Bibles for Kids, etc… several worthwhile programs that are constantly ongoing.

But obviously, Christmas is a huge endeavor. They have Angel Trees where children are given a slip and allowed to ask for six items. The Angels are then selected by local residents who purchase the items and return them to the charity to be given out. Everything is kept anonymous to save the children any unnecessary embarrassment.

The charity posted one request form submitted by 12 year old C.H., a young boy. I’ve attached a copy of the request and hope it affects you as much as it did me.

C.H. didn’t ask for a single toy. He didn’t want an I-Pod… an I-Phone… an X-Box… or a bike. No toy cars. Of the six items he could have requested, all he wanted for was socks. The other five slots on the form were left blank.

Next time you “want” for a luxury, remember C.H. and his humble request for a “need.”

And that’s MY take.

0 comments:

Post a Comment