Give vs. Get

I love Youtube.

Oftentimes I look for clean comedians because I love stand-up; I love the jokes, but hate the language that most comedians use. Yesterday I looked for Christian comedians, and found one of my favorites, Michael Jr.

Michael is one of my favorites because he likes to play with words just like I do. It's so easy to mess with the English language! But then he adds some awesome revelations that blow me out of the water. Yesterday was one of those times.

I'd been having trouble when going to church. People seem to ignore me, or not have time to talk when I start up a conversation. Sundays are the only times I get any face-to-face-time with other Christians. But lately I'd been feeling disgruntled, unappreciated, and unacknowledged. 

Acknowledgement is important to me. I run the bread ministry- everyone takes bread home with them every week, without a single word of thanks. I also sing before communion services, and again as they pass out the elements each week. My husband is a deacon and works diligently for the church, and my kids do a lot concerning clean-up and helping in other ministries. We attend church each week, and everyone loves my husband and kids.

So why won't anyone talk to me? 

I sequestered my grumpy self on the couch on Saturday, deciding to watch a little clean comedy. But I received much more than laughter.

Michael Jr. spoke about Giving vs. Getting when you walk into a room. "Go into the room with your mind on giving instead of getting and see what happens" was the essence of his lesson. This blew my mind because I'd been going into church with the exact opposite attitude for months- after all weren't me and my family doing enough in church?

*BUZZ* wrong answer!

Fine. So I took a deep breath, cleared my negative thoughts, and went to church the next day with this new mind-set. 

I gave smiles to everyone. I gave questions, asking how someone was doing, then gave my ears to listen to what they had to say. I gave thanks and appreciation to those who helped me with my ministries. I gave a testimonial in church giving thanks to God for getting me started as a self-published author.

And in so giving, I got a lot back.

People asked me about my gimpy knee and how I was doing. They asked to see my books (I brought the sample proofs I ordered, though that was not my intention to show them off- my pastor asked to see them last week- I wasn't intending to do a testimony about the books either!), people hugged me, and congratulated me. For the first time in a long time, I'd felt like I was part of the church- not just a worker bee in a hive.

Now if I can just behave myself and keep that mind-set to 'Give' and get rid of the 'Get', I'll be able to bless a lot more people and not get grumpy about it.

So thank you God, for letting Michael Jr.'s videos pop up on Youtube. And thank you Michael, for not only giving me a laugh, but helping me become a better, more giving Christian!