Delores Liesner
Activating Faith in everyday life
It’s Better to Give – A Simpledown Lesson
I know, I know – it’s scriptural to give instead of worrying about receiving. It’s not that I’m obsessive or anything, but this goal of staying credit card free this year, 
and paying off debt, has taken on a life of its own.
First there was Ebay – what a disaster. It takes me a couple of days to prepare things – photograph, measure, weigh, estimate postage, write descriptions, etc. Items hanging everywhere, boxes stacked, it’s messy and time consuming. Some you sell, some you don’t. Some pay on time, some don’t. Then they deduct the costs – cost to list, cost to sell (percentage of what you sold), cost to receive payment. When I looked at the net gain for all the time and work expended, we’ve decided it’s not worth it. Won’t do that again.
Someone said try Craigslist – That ad brought one person saying they wanted an item who didn’t show up, one person gave a downpayment, then came to get the money back because they found something else later that night, and then I got tons of spam emails. Won’t do that again.
Then I decided to see who I could bless with a few things rather than selling. Three easy steps – Pray, follow the nudge – bless and get blessed. The reward so much better! Here’s just a few of the places I found: Missionaries that need things. Family or friends whose kids are starting out that need things. Local family has fire and needs everything. Friends mentioning they enjoy authors whose books I just read… I set a huge book on quilting to go to Goodwill by my front door and one of the ladies at the Bible Study was oohing and aahing wondering whose is this wonderful thing. She was very excited to find out it was now hers! Collections are being made for soldiers www.give2thetroops.org/items. There’s a shoe charity for people in need: www.soles4souls.org. Local department stores collect business clothing. Area missions like Salvation Army, Purple Heart, Goodwill. Burlington’s Cottage 14 for homeless veterans. Shepherd’s home and other area ministries have lists of needs on their sites. Church libraries appreciate additions of recent books that I would only read once…I even found a lady looking for recipes after I thinned out the cookbook collection!
That I will do again!
Acts 20:35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ It’s not only better to give – it’s a lot less stressful!
4 Comments on “It’s Better to Give – A Simpledown Lesson”
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Be the Miracle! – with journaling pages
Delores Liesner: Author
American Christian Fiction Writers Association
Delores Liesner 
Great article. If you decide to get rid of anymore quilting books, I’d love to have a chance at one. I am currently working on a Memorial Quilt for my dear recently deceased husband, adding a square in each block from his shirts. It is slow work, but one day it will be worth it all to look back and see that I made it from square 1 to square 36 plus the added length to the sides. A lot of tears have gone into it thus far but hopefully my tears will stop by the time I finish it. Patience and perseverance to achieve the desired result is what I am trusting Him for,,,one day at a time.
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I find that giving is much better than the other things that you tried. I also wind up giving most of my things to our church now as we have our own Bazaar/Flea Market on our property. We give some of the items to people in need or sell them to benefit the church. Speaking of that, i need to do a Spring cleaning again! I don’t know where all this stuff comes from. Would also love to know more about the soles4souls program. i know i have at least a few pair of shows that I have not even worn. Thank you Auntie Dee you are continue to be and inspiration to me.
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AMEN! I also pray, “LORD, what can YOU provide before I buy?” Thanks for sharing your experiences and the LORD’s Blessings!
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Thank you so much for highlighting our cause as a way for people to donate their shoes. We love partnering with people across the U.S. to help provide foot protection to some of the 1.5 billion people around the world who’ve never owned a pair.
In fact, we were thinking & wanted to seek your interest in collecting shoes with your friends in your community. All in an effort to collect/give 11 million pairs of shoes this year. If this is something you’d be interested in, feel free to shoot me an email at jeremyc@giveshoes.org
Thanks again, Delores!
Jeremy, S4S staff
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