Giving

Hi,
This week I started tutoring, but this morning didn't work out for any of my students to come. So, I put away the books we used this school year and got out the books my classes will used next year. Then, I left school early. I was planning on meeting a friend after tutoring and running errands, so since I left school early, I had time to kill. How to kill time in town.....hmmm....shopping! Before shopping, God reminded me that it'd been over eight weeks since I donated blood. I gobbled down the protein bar I was going to have for lunch and headed to the donation center.

The nurse recorded the normal temperature, blood pressure, height, and weight. She asked me if I gave a partial donation because I am so small. Ego boost! Really, my weight is high enough she had no reason to ask. I am healthy, but not small. Then, she pricked my finger to test my hemoglobin. I have been borderline low before, and I have not been eating a lot of red meat lately, so I was praying. God please let me be able to donate. You brought me here. My reading was 14.3, and the nurse said it was great! "You could donate extra!"

I don't know if the good hemoglobin reading was that high before I prayed or not, but if it wasn't God gave me what I needed so I could give.

People always ask me what I am going to do over my summer. I assume they are thinking about their kids and/or job and/or spouse keeping them busy, and wondering how I, without any of those things (not really without a spouse, but...you understand) , could find anything to do. Oh, I find plenty to do. During the school year, I don't have much time or energy for my friends or family, and I make up for it during the summer.

I also take advantage of having extra time with God. It is so important! So important that Jesus skipped out on sleep to be alone with His Father. He is where I find the energy to give my time and love to people during the summer. Giving blood requires a good hemoglobin count which is connected to healthy eating. Giving of ourselves for others requires being filled with God's love which is connected to a healthy time with Him.

There is popular "Bible study" illustration of this truth. Someone fills a pitcher and dumps it into a cup and uses that cup to fill another cup. The problem is that the first cup ends up empty. However, if the pitcher is continually poured into the first cup and the first cup overflows into the second cup, the first cup is never empty. There are variations of this. Anyway, I have to admit that during the school year, I don't receive God's pouring, and I wind up empty. I need to work on that. I love summer free time because it makes it so much easier to take time to accept what God is pouring into me!

I hope this blesses you!
Jordon