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« Back to All Daily Grace

Offering the gift of a day and ourselves

11.27.2014
|
Daily Grace

My mother Earlene believes in sharing and being kind to others. On Thanksgiving Day when I was growing up, my mom would drive to a nearby children’s home and pick up a few extra kids to bring to our home for dinner. We were already a family of seven, and in my opinion, we didn’t need more people to grab the turkey drumstick. But she felt these fatherless and motherless children deserved a home for the holidays.

What would happen if I stepped outside of my comfort zone and invited someone to my house for Thanksgiving? Maybe a person who couldn’t get home (to another country or a far-away state) to celebrate this season with her own family? I would feel awkward for a while. And then I would get to know someone new. I would grow. And improve my life. And “use the gift of this day.”

Perhaps we could offer the gift of a day and ourselves to someone else this Thanksgiving. From a prayer in the old Lutheran Book of Worship we promised to “offer with joy and thanksgiving what [God has] first given us—ourselves, our time, our possessions, signs of [God’s] gracious love.”

This is adapted from a blog post, “What would Earlene do?” written by Terri Lackey and first published on the Women of the ELCA blog on November 28, 2013.

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Women of the ELCA
6 Mar
Women of the ELCA
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What does a steward actually do, anyway? A #steward is someone who takes care of something people care about with an eye to the future. #Farmers know that. That’s how they take care of their land. Read our monthly #devotion: womenoftheelca.org/blog/devot… pic.twitter.com/Cm7lzdY9sa

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