We all hope to till the soil right for good harvest of seeds we plant. We don’t all have the same idea of how to till, however. Still, why we till holds common understanding.
I have witnessed from my own eyes how churches and small communities make children’s wish list during Christmas come true at just a request.
Having been on the joyous yet hard work and planning of giving, I understand the feeling of duty to try and make a difference for a person’s life even if for just one day.
You never know how your intentions to help will impact those whom you reached out to, but no one gives so that we can judge the hand that reaches to take.
Director, Russell Crowe, who held the leading role as Jake Foley in his latest movie entitled, Poker Face, scripted in more or less words during the reading of Jake’s will that it is with hope money donated will eventually get to those who need it.
When giving, helping out, or volunteering, I am guilty to admit that my eyes have taken note of those taking more than their share. I reflectively remind myself that in my lifetime, I have had a few moments of greed to put me in that same shoe of shamelessness.
I still recall sitting on a Santa’s lap to get a generic brand Barbie doll I don’t recall ever playing with after receiving (I was that somewhat peculiar girl who wanted to make or fix things). My parents probably will never recall me doing this because I found a way to go inside this building across from a rental home we lived in about the age of eleven seeing another child getting a gift. I went in on my own and “hustled” a toy understanding I just had to line up, sit on Santa’s lap, and tell him what I wished for (I can’t recall what I asked for, but I can tell you it wasn’t a doll.)
While I received something for free out of the kindness of someone’s heart, I’m sure my appreciation for receiving was hardly expressed.
To reflect, I realize that just by hearing or seeing the opportunity to get something for free, there is this sudden urgency within to act as if in need. The getting of something all of a sudden becomes this awe-inspiring drive. In my lifetime, I’ve witnessed this behavior from children to adults.
A children’s book, Milo and the Magical Stones, given to one of my oldest children by my paternal cousin’s family has long lasted in my heart of its message. Getting something requires giving something back. The befitting words here of Derek Jeter I once perused the line of in an article, “You have a little, you give a little.”
How many of us at an adult age have forgotten or never have arrived at such understanding of reciprocation?
As a child, I was given that doll at no cost to my (unknowing) parents. However, Russell Crowe must know hope having expressed the intent when writing that script in the will about giving. Whether I cared to play with the doll or not, love and compassion was sowed.
There is nothing I want I can’t get for myself. That list is purely material and changes within seasons. My needs, however, are at the mercy of God’s grace. Those gifts I silently am indebted to for such bounty.
I know I have failed to give when I should have or have taken due to gluttony or drawn desires. I know because I am haunted by the eyes that I passed by without giving aid when my heart told me I should have or though I don’t truly recall exact moments of immense greed, I have felt shame for having ever known such feeling.
In looking back, I know now I was meant to get that doll. No. Not because I was deserving of it or that it was exactly what I needed. The message for my heart, mind, body, and spirit was so much bigger.
A seed was planted in me upon receiving that doll. An internal message that only grew in time.
Somebody took the time to think of others like me, a child who learned to never ask for anything out of years of preparation to avoid disappointment, one who never was asked a name and yet given a gift- without being asked for anything in return.
The doll symbolized: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. No. Not for myself, but for the betterment of joy of others, we give hope when we can. When we give hope, we teach hope.
No matter how little of hope you may have for yourself, there is that little hope that you can give someone else.
While I didn’t ask for anything in specific terms, my asking and seeking gave me the greatest gift in return- understanding the power of giving hope to others.
Just like winning the Spelling Bee made me realize I liked winning by the grace and belief of my sixth grade teacher, getting that doll planted a duty for me likewise.
In my class, I now have an auction table that I restock with new auction items every beginning of each month. Funny. My former students would probably only remember me giving them one piece of chocolate throughout their entire year. Stingy, frugal, or on the brighter and more positive side, perhaps truly just more sentimental back then, I remember the chocolate to this day I gave one of my earliest students.
The chocolate was round-shaped and aluminum-foiled to look like the planet, Earth. I recall telling my students that they could seize the world, as they see it being captured in their hands, to become anything they put their mind to on the last day of that school year.
I’m not sure if I have gotten soft or that the world is changing where I feel that children need more purpose to work for something, but I have found great love in finding things at a bargain price for students to save up points for to bid on.
I have to wonder if students truly understand what I am trying to do in my joy of making giving fun. I have to also remember that my tries are not for them to truly know or understand why. The results will take years and I will be long forgotten with all my words of praise or trinkets I have placed on that auction table. All I know is that I am following my heart, knowing that I am planting seeds of joy and encouragement to be good and do good in life.
I am not an advocate for weakening our children nor raising them to be mediocre where we change challenges for the physically strong just so the cerebrally competent may have a chance. My own children could be a testament to that fact of their mother’s character. Cheer tryouts I’ve held or math teams I’ve put together would tell you I uphold expectations for hard work and perseverance.
All of our children need to be challenged to understand and arrive to their greatest heights. If not tested, all have already essentially failed in comparison to those who have had challenges to assess their abilities. As my Law and Government high school teacher had us once come to conclude in a discussion, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”
I believe everyone is uniquely made, strengthened within in all aspects of life, put together to make all things around better. If there is a way to help children find what makes their heart jump, I will have wanted to have contributed to a spark.
I have let go of feeling spiritually disgruntled because students are leaving pencils behind or simply throwing away paper upon a simple change in thought to work out a problem or leaving both on the floor or their desks upon dismissal.
I keep telling myself that not all geniuses, doctors, lawyers, inventors, business starters, entrepreneurs are neat and savvy. I should know. Having five of my own, I anticipate going on a “silent” boycott all over again where I stopped cleaning up bathrooms and bedrooms of my children seeing that they started to just expect rooms to magically be clean.
All children are a growing bud, each developing into their own makeup, some with thorns to protectively shield themselves from anything harmful within radii of their position.
Ultimately I realize that I am not to judge nor dictate what will or should become of each. I, myself, am still following my path each day, answering to my own callings, always hoping to get each duty right. If I sense there is so much more I have yet to understand of my purpose even almost to my fifties now, how much more do our children still have to learn of themselves?
Just because we may arrive at some understanding of who we are, this does not entail our sole duties have all been fulfilled. Everything is a process of maturation. Not just in thoughts of age, but also in understanding and acting upon our thoughts.
Some get baptized at soonest time from birth while some walk into the river, Jordan, to be baptized at the age of thirty. Even after baptism does one know greater works have just begun.
Whether a child or grown, fulfilling righteousness has no barriers to those who mean well to walk the path of life with gratitude and peace.
We understandably judge one another of being gluttonous and filled with greed. We are those known to have behaved in such manner and thus, who have continuously been reminded to check the mote in our own eyes first, after all. Distraction of other people’s doings is a great deterrent to looking within. Concurrently, let us not be distracted by faults and pitfalls.
If we continue to plant seeds of hope for greater good, imagine the years to follow in the propagation of even just one seed.
In the season to plant, what seed do you sow to propagate?
