Royal Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post brought to you by the Clever Girls Collective and SWAGG. I was compensated to write this post but quite honestly, I wanted to write it anyway.
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It’s pretty odd that the best gift I ever gave wasn’t even one I purchased. Fancy that, right? The Queen of Free giving a gift to someone for free. Before you exaggerate my shopping prowess, this was a gift that was given to me that I got to turn around and give to someone else (if you don’t follow, keep reading). And it was a gift that we (actually given to both the King of Free and me) received only a couple of short weeks ago.
You see, we hang out with a really cool group of people. They go to our church, they see the world through similar eyes, and they have awesome kids – the kind of kids you’re excited to have your kids around. We study interesting books, we pray together, we struggle through some of the big questions we have about life and the world together, we bring meals to each other when someone is in need, we celebrate life’s successes, we mourn together when necessary, we try to exercise compassion in the world around us in order to show people true Hope. Simply put, we live in community. If you haven’t gotten my drift yet, I love these people.
We have few rules. Buuuuttt one of the rules we do hold up high is a “No presents at Christmas time.” It’s simply a way to keep things calm and under control. If each family gave only a $5 gift to the other families, you’re talking about a close to $50 investment. With our strict Christmas budget, we simply couldn’t afford it. And we don’t want anyone struggling with making choices to buy gifts or use credit cards. Plus, none of these families really needs anything. So we put the rule firmly in place a few years ago. And everyone pretty much abides by it.
You noticed I said, “Pretty much,” right? This year, the entire group chipped in to give us a Christmas gift as a thank you for leading the group. Here’s what I love. They know us so well. They knew that we wouldn’t be happy with a restaurant gift card, a piece of decor, a new book, even Christmas cookies. And so they gave us a gift that we got to give to the world.
You see, we love the charitable organization Blood:Water Mission. They work to give clean drinking water and HIV aids education to the world. Did you know $1 gives an African clean drinking water for an entire. year?! This organization partners with local communities to make that happen through a variety of means.
And our community? They share our passion. And so, they donated $1 per every person and pet in their household bringing a grand sum of $48 to the table. So this year 48 people will have clean drinking water because of this gift given on our behalf, in honor of us. Thought of in another context, it equals one family having clean drinking water for TWELVE years.
Water. It runs down my drain while I’m rinsing dishes. It flows from the shower in which I probably stay too long. It washes my clothes. It fills my coffee pot. It’s guzzled after a long run. I never think about not having clean water. It’s so ingrained in my experience that I would be perplexed if it wasn’t clean. I expect it to be free of microorganisms. I expect it to taste good, too be clear, to be be healthful. Water gives life. And yet the majority of the world doesn’t have access to it.
Thanks to an awesome community, I gave life this Christmas. Isn’t that what Christmas is all about?
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