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bless, blessing, bloggess, couch, couches, Faith, free, gift, give, giving, god, hope, humanity, money, Pray, thebloggess, traveling red dress, travelingreddress, trials, war, warrior, wedding
I’ve recently taken to calling 2012 my year of giving. As most of you know it started with my decision to give away my wedding dress for free. (Which by the way is still on and we meet this Saturday for the exchange. <3) The joy I felt over giving my dress away has been unbelievable. So, when we found out we'd be able to buy new couches I made the decision to give our current ones away for free as well. And I found a family here in Alabama whose home was destroyed in the Tornados that swept through last April. When I heard their story I knew God had placed them in my path to bless them too. My heart did flipflops and I quickly arranged for them to pick up the couches this weekend. (Big weekend!)
I decided then that I was going to dedicate 2012 to giving of myself freely. I declared it to God, to Twitter, and to my family that I was going to be more than I had ever been and allow God to use me to bless those around me.
And then tonight we realized how much we'd be getting back on taxes. And despite donating items and money to local shelters in the sum of over $5000 this year NONE of our donations are tax deductible and we will be walking away from our tax return with barely enough to cover our moving costs. My heart sank.
No couches. No fixing the broken AC in my car. And the worst…possibly no homeschooling my daughter this school year. The first thing I thought was, "Wow. We're giving our couches away and now we won't have any ourselves. WOW." That was tough for me. And I was weak. I turned to Mr. Awesome and said I'd just tell the family something came up and we'd have to keep them but he wisely insisted that they needed them more than we did. And he's right. So as of this weekend we will not have any couches or chairs to sit on for God knows how long and somehow I'm actually okay with this.
Because I know what's really going on here. I declared something. I declared that I was going to be as unselfish as possible and that declaration is being challenged. Yes, I assumed it would be easy to be selfless because I'd been given so much. But can I still be selfless when I don't have much to give? I want to find out. I want to know if I can do this. I want to know if God can do this through me.
So 2012 is STILL my year of Giving. And it's going to hurt. A lot. But it's worth it. People are worth it. The world is worth it.
The world is WORTH IT.
The End.
Like this:
Why am I stuck on none of your 5k donations are deductible? Were the recipients not blessed w/ a nonprofit status? Oh, dear. Is there a loophole? I feel like there’s a story, and yet you’re remarkably peaceful about this. Do you need anything? I wish there were something I could do. Will let you know if the lottery strategy works.
The donations all went to a nonprofit org here in Alabama but because of how we had to file the donations wont count for us. If we filed differently it would but then we’d lose more in other areas. Sadly, it’s a no win for us. I seem at peace but my heart is a bit distraught. It’s sad. But I know it’s only temporary. I guess I just know that somehow it’s going to be okay.
You are an amazing beautiful soul and I have no doubt that this will return to you in time..It just will. For now, perhaps count these things as unanswered prayers and know that the universe has something better in store for you!
Maybe this is a lesson in letting go? Ultimately, all we really *need* to achieve happiness is to love and be loved, and very few of the many material trappings we surround ourselves with… Yours was a brave and inspiring post, thank you for sharing.
I think you hit the nail on the head. It’s amazing what we think we “need” but actually don’t. Thank you for the love. <3