Hot Chocolate Change

Do commercials ever get you?

Tonight while I’m preparing for a sermon in the morning, my husband is watching a football game.  I don’t know if it was the music or the wintery wonderland scene, but this commercial caught my attention.

There was a little girl sitting in the back of her family’s SUV selling hot chocolate.  She sells A BUNCH of hot chocolate and we watch as her little mason jar fills up with money, but you notice she’s a little distracted by a man off in the distance who is ringing one of those bells with the little red bucket.

As she finishes selling for the day, she takes her mason jar full of change over to the man ringing the bell and with a smile gives the whole thing to him.  The commercial ends with her running up and jumping into the arms of her dad for a hug with a big smile on her face.

Who paid for all the supplies for the hot chocolate she was selling?  By giving away everything she made selling that hot chocolate, she depleted what she would need as a small business to purchase more supplies.

Having given away everything she earned, she didn’t sheepishly go to her dad and say, “I hope you’re not mad.  I noticed that man ringing his bell all afternoon and I thought I should give him the money.”  No.  She ran across the parking lot after she gave the man the money and with a big smile and a LOT of enthusiasm, she jumped into her daddy’s arms for a big hug!

She obviously believed that money was not an issue, and she knew that her dad would be pleased with her generosity.

What if we approached money the same way?

What if when we felt the tug on our hearts to be generous, we gave with a big smile what the LORD gave us in the first place and ran to Him with a big smile knowing He is pleased with our generosity and He will not have us experience lack because we gave?

Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

Luke 6:38