Humbled

Matthew 6: 1 "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it....but when you give...do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret."
Our tradition is to remember Saint Nicholas and how he served the Lord. We practiced giving -- in secret --as this former Bishop of Myra (modern Turkey) gave! The night before, the boys' went to work, sneaking things into each others' stocking when their brother was busy and not looking. I was blessed when Josh asked to pull money out his his "spending money" section of his piggy bank. He wrapped up the coins in paper, taped it up, and smiled as they dropped into Aidon's stocking. These two tugged on my heart strings when I followed the sound of hammering and found them using a toy hammer to nail socks in the wall - one for me and one for Pete - for our stockings. Here they are on the morning of Dec 6th, opening the stockings:

Someone had put coins in my "sock". Aidon said, "maybe you can get something you need with it.". Josh loved seeing others receive the gifts he had given to them -- all smiles and twinkling eyes. Josh still told us what he gave us - maybe it's cuz he's 3. Since both the boys, and the parents were secretly filling the stockings; we hadn't made sure the candy was evenly shared. Aidon had noticeably less candy. When I opened my sock, i gave him a fistful of candy. He stopped me and said, "No. I gave that to you. I am okay with less. I am blessed."

I was humbled by seeing children give from the heart...Thank you Jesus for working on my heart.