The Gift of Giving to Others

Our "shoe boxes"

At our (John and myself) church they started their
 Operation Christmas Child stuff so we picked up a couple of boxes from there and headed to the store Sunday afternoon.  I knew going in that it would be incredibly easy to fill those smaller sized boxes that they give us (or maybe the correct word is difficult because the stuff we wanted to buy was too big to fit inside!).  So we opted for not using those shoe boxes and instead bought some reusable bins from the Dollar Store.

We were thinking about what would be the most unlikely age/gender to receive gifts and John had heard that it was the older group (ages 10-14) that were normally left out... more often the boys.  So we decided to fill 2 boxes for the boys in that age group.

It makes me so happy that what we are doing will give a couple boys that may not have ever received anything for Christmas or for a birthday ever their very first gift.  That they can experience the joy that receiving something for nothing is.  Of course Christmas shouldn't just be about giving gifts... so I also hope these boys get to celebrate with friends or family or people that care about them this year too.

Some of the things we put in the shoe boxes

The good news is that these boxes aren't due back (at our church at least) for another couple of weeks so if you want to fill one you definitely still have time!  Simply head over to the Operation Christmas Child website to learn where the closest collection center to you is!