The Giver of Good Gifts

James 1:17 "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

Chapel yesterday was a very good an inspiring message about God being the Giver of Good gifts. Of course this is something most of us know in our head, but can forget in our heart. Either that or we don't surrender our timeline to God and we get impatient with His "lack of giving." (Think Abraham and Sarah...using Hagar). Sometimes we don't expect gifts from Him, or we expect them to occur in a different way, so we miss out on the gifts He does give. Sometimes we think we are entitled to more and more and more, and we take for granted the gifts we do have. Sometimes we think we are unworthy of any gift He might give, so we pass up the ones He offers. Pray this week that God will open your eyes to the gifts He has given you and that He wants to give you. Surrender your timeline - after all, this is GOD, the Creator of the Universe, that we're talking about. He has perfect timing.

Something else I think we (or at least I) do, is want gifts that are not good for us. We don't even realize that they're not good, and we get upset with God because we're not getting it. But He only gives us good gifts, and sometimes that means not giving us something we think we want. For example, there is this awesome wedding blog site, WeddingBee. It's a collaboration of blogger brides who get chosen to write about their wedding planning and then recap for about a year or two once they are married. Every so often they have open applications for brides to apply. I love to blog and I love wedding planning, so part of me wanted to apply. I thought it would be something good and it was something I wanted. But I never did apply. Now looking back, I realize how not good it would have been for me to be a wedding-bee blogger. I can barely do homework as it is! I don't need any more distractions. But initially I thought this was something good for me.

As a small piece of evidence of His good gifts, I have an exciting story! (Exciting to me anyway!) Back in December I ordered my info cards from Vistaprint at a steal of a price! I only paid shipping & handling for 100 cards! They turned out beautifully and I was very happy about the look and price! Then over spring break, as we were putting the invitations together, we realized two things: 1) my mom's phone number was wrong on the info cards and 2) one of the hotels we listed was not one we wanted to recommend anymore. Since the cards were so inexpensive to begin with, we though, "No big deal, we'll just reorder." But I ordered the original cards during a special promotion. I waited a few days...but no promotion came. I was getting anxious about having to pay full price for the cards, which would be very disappointing. I began to pray about it. [Side note: something cool from my devo last night -- we are God's children, therefore when things matter to us, they matter to God.] Last night I just felt like I should email the company and explain the situation, just to see if they could give me the promotion. Guess what? This morning in my inbox was an email saying they had added the promotion to my account! Vistaprint is great! God is awesome! [PS: this is my shameless plug for Vistaprint - sign up for their emails so you can be notified of promotions - and order when the price is right! You won't be disappointed with the product for your price!!]

I'm thankful God is the Giver of Good Gifts. I'm praying that throughout this very stressful week, I can keep my eyes open for the good gifts He has for me.

Oh, and one more good gift: tonight a girl took my shift at work!! Now I can get more homework done and hopefully still sleep! Thank you Jesus!