In light of the Christmas season, we should take a break from the doom and gloom opinion style and talk about what is good.
Giving is good.
Christmas, the so-called "season of giving," is surrounded fully by gifts, food, toy drives, and the charity workers collecting money for the poor. Unfortunately, this giving is less about the local food bank now and more about the local black Friday deals.
In tough economic times every person is trying to save a few pennies here and there to ensure that they are prepared should things get worse. When saving, the first things to come off the Christmas budget do not seem to be the hot, if not beneficial, wish-list items. Instead, it tends to be the charities.
How many times have you walked out of a retailer in the month of December, heard the tell tale ringing of the Salvation Army bell, and ignored it? If you tend to be like so many Americans you have done this many times, the bell itself just a minor annoyance of the holidays. Just imagine if every one of us who walked out of those same stores dropped a dollar or a quarter into the bucket. Think about how many people could be helped.
You can't buy much with this seemingly insignificant sum of money, but when it is added together the collective worth is truly great. If every person who traveled into and out of a store this holiday season gave a quarter, numerous lives could be positively affected.
Millions of people shop at Wal-Mart per week and it would only require 4,000 quarters to raise $1,000.
Not only does this help someone who has nothing, it can also help you. Through your sudden burst of the Christmas spirit you have helped a life and that is wonderful. You have helped someone who wasn’t expecting anything by giving them a little of the Christmas cheer that you are accustomed to.
Giving is fun because helping someone you don’t know gives you a feeling that no amount of big-ticket Christmas presents could ever bestow. This is truly the heart of Christmas: people coming together and giving what they can to help out those who couldn’t enjoy the holiday otherwise.
This year give the best Christmas present that you could: hope. All it takes is giving up a little change when you leave a store, and you can change someone’s holiday for the better.
