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!