Devotion

Lessons In Sharing
And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.  --- Hebrews 13:16

I used to think Mama was a traitor to her own family; well, at least a traitor to me and my brothers. In my childish mind, I thought that whatever Mama brought home from the grocery store was only meant to be consumed by the people who lived in our house. We didn't have much to spare, and a weekly grocery trip didn't always carry us through the week. Nevertheless, when my out of town relatives stopped by during their annual summer visit - all of a sudden the ham sandwiches that Mama told me and my brothers we didn't need were being served to my aunt, uncle, and cousins with cups of 'full strength' grape Kool-Aid (ours got watered down to make it stretch), and the chocolate and vanilla crème sandwich cookies (you remember the Winn Dixie brand of Big Sixty cookies) that were supposed to be all gone reappeared all of a sudden, and I could only have one (so I wouldn't spoil my dinner) while my cousins had three or four a piece. When the visit came to an end, and my aunt, uncle, and cousins went on their way, Mama tidied up the house, arranged what was let of the ham to look like we still had plenty more, returned the cookies to their hiding place when I was not around, and prepared dinner. It wasn't until the summer before I started high school when I realized had a traitor mentality. Mama was demonstrating the gift of sharing to her children, and I despised my relatives because of my selfish heart. Just like those cookies Mama had hidden away, we all have more to give than meets the eyes. Thank you, Mama, for your consistency in providing all the 'share' lessons I needed until I finally saw the light.