How you can make $19 in 4 hours and 160 minutes!

Give generously. It's a phrase I've used more than once on here. Sometimes, though, it's hard to practice what I preach.

I got caught up in the fall consignment frenzy this year. It was my first time and it was incredible. That is, incredibly time consuming, incredibly obsessive and incredibly nerve wracking. Pricing, pinning, hanging, tagging...it's not for the faint of heart. 

My plan was to consign with the sale near my house, then to take anything left to a consignment place that gives cash on the spot and then anything left from that I would donate. Yeah, I only like to donate the things that no one else wants. I'm cool like that. 

So, I did the first sale and did mediocre. Then I took all the stuff that didn't sell, still tagged and on hangers to the cash consignment place. Know what they told me? They don't take anything with a pin hole. REALLY? Because almost everything I had with me had at least one pin hole. I left the few things that didn't have pins, waited two hours for them to decide what they wanted and then picked up my whopping $16 and went back home. Did I mention I had to drive about 40 minutes one way to get to this place?

You would think that one trip would be enough. 

Well, I went home with all that stuff, washed it all again and put it back into my car with plans to take it all back and collect my paycheck. Those bags rode around in my car for about a week. During this time my small group met and in the course of conversation one of the ladies told me that the pregnancy resource center where she volunteers would love clothing donations. "Done," I said, "You can have it all." 

But you know what selfish ole me did? I pulled out a few of the best things, the things I thought I could get the most money for, the things from Baby Gap and Gymboree, the things that had been gifted to me for the most part and I set them aside. I planned another trip to the consignment place. 

Forty minutes in the car later, I dropped off my box of nice things. Then we went to the mall to play in the kids area while we waited. Oh, and I bought myself a pair of pants, after all, I was fixing to hit the big time. 

You know that pricking in your heart, when you see all that you've been given and feel that it's so so much, and then see what others have and feel the shame that comes with the awareness of being so selfish when there is so much suffering? I felt it. And I ignored it. I had two huge bags of clothes, most of it given to me, so much stuff that I could give it away and never even notice it was gone, yet I saved the best for me. 

Strolling through the mall munching on the mini cookie I had gotten each of us from Great American Cookie, my phone rang with the call I'd been waiting almost two hours for. The consignment place had gone through my stuff and they had the things they weren't taking ready for pick up and would I like my $3 in cash or store credit? 

What? 

All that time, all that energy, all that gas, all the calories in that cookie for three piddly dollars. Selfishness has a great price. And I was ashamed of myself. But I had to give it to Him, He has a way of teaching lessons, doesn't He? 

Being generous comes from the heart. And giving generously is the overflow of that beautiful fruit. Looking forward, I hope I will take this lesson to heart and truly give generously. Not just to the people around me who are my friends, but to the people who live lives marked with suffering. I don't want to live a life where my first thought is me, I want to live a life that says, "Here is my best, you can have it all." 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son"...Here is My best, you can have it all.