Make a Difference, Make it Count

Mom just got home from Florida on Sunday and I'm trying to call her, but her line's constantly busy...But Mother's Day is right around the corner, the weekend after next, in fact, AND her birthday is the Friday before that, so what to get for her that she doesn't already have because she needs nothing. And I seriously hate to waste money on flowers--yeah, they're pretty but a week later they're dead and in the garbage and what do you have to show for that thirty or forty dollars but another empty vase that you have to stash somewhere to collect dust from now until eternity...??

Back around Christmas, I read on Ann Voskamp's blog A Holy Experience, how their family stopped buying each other Christmas gifts and instead donated gifts through different organizations such as Compassion International and World Vision to help out children and families in crisis around the world, and I just love that idea! We have SO much! And honestly, we don't need another top, another pair of earrings, another bottle of perfume, a restaurant gift card, or a vase of flowers to dry up and wither in a week when so many others in this world don't even have proper food, clean water, housing, health care, or education...especially when it's so easy for us who have to give to these families in need and do something that will make a real difference in someone else's life.

So, I tossed the flower arrangement catalog in the garbage (probably should've put it in the recycle bin, now that I think about it...every day we're learning, right??) and pulled up my World Vision Gift Catalog. For my mom, I donated ducks and for my mother-in-law, I gave chickens to help someone else who is hungry or trying to provide a roof over their kids' heads. That simple. That easy to make a difference in someone else's life rather than throwing money in the garbage or wasting it on something else we really don't need...

Maybe you'd like to make a difference, too. If so, you can go to the World Vision Gift Catalog here and see all the ways you can help make someone else's life a little better in honor of your mom or mother-in-law. Every gift you give brings hope and help to children and families in need around the world. This year, give a gift of love.