Daily Devotional for December 14, 2021
Giving Back to God
“Come on, Angie,” Lanita said as she studied the Christmas list in her hand. “We’ve still got gifts to buy before we meet Mom by the Christmas tree. We have to be there in an hour. C’mon.”
“Coming,” Angie replied as she pulled her attention away from a man demonstrating a remote-controlled helicopter. She pointed to it, adding, “I think we should get that helicopter for Dad.”
Lanita shrugged. “Let’s see what else we can find first.”
They were still shopping for their dad’s gift when they met their Sunday school teacher and her daughter Brynley. Mrs. Kimble smiled and pointed to the bags the girls were carrying. “It looks like you’re doing some Christmas shopping.”
“Wow!” exclaimed Brynley. “You must have done a lot of work to earn enough money to buy all those presents! Or do your parents give you money for them?”
“We earned some of it,” said Angie. “But Mom and Dad gave us extra money to buy gifts.”
Brynley grinned. “So you’re probably buying your parents gifts with their own money,” she said. “That’s what I do too.”
In Sunday school the next day, Angie and Lanita grinned at each other when their teacher used them as an illustration. “Giving your parents gifts bought with money they gave you is a great example of giving to God,” she told the class. “Everything we have—life, time, talents, and our money and possessions—comes from God. Even our ability to do good things comes from Him, because we could never do good on our own—we need Jesus to give us His goodness. So God sent His Son to earth as the greatest gift of all. But sometimes we forget that everything we have really belongs to God. When we give Him our time or money or use our talents to do good for others, we’re only giving back what is rightfully His.”
Angie raised her hand. “Even though the money for my parents’ Christmas gifts comes from them, they still love to get gifts from me, and God does too, doesn’t He?”
“Yes, He does,” said Mrs. Kimble with a smile. “He loves it when His children joyfully give back out of love for all He’s given them.”
-Jan L. Hansen
How about you?
Do you remember that all you have comes from God? Every gift you give Him came from Him in the first place, from the money you put in the offering plate to the time you spend helping others. Even the kindness and love you show others came to you through His best gift of all—Jesus! He gave you each of those gifts because He loves you, and He loves every gift you give Him in return.
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