I have a confession to make...I am a sucker when it comes to thinking I'm going to get something for nothing! I have always thought it would be so exciting to win a sweepstake drawing or a free trip! In college I got a phone call where the cheerful lady on the other end told me that I had just been chosen to win an all expense paid vacation for 2 to Florida! I was ecstatic! I took the whole thing hook, line, and sinker! I even gave them my debit card number. I didnt' think anything of it until the next morning when I tried to fill my car with gas. My debit card was reading NO MONEY IN YOUR ACCOUNT!!! What!?! I drove home and in a frenzy told my mom that I had been scammed!!! In my Mom's matter of fact way, she told me that I was crazy to give my debit card number to someone over the phone. I called the people back (thankfully I had the sense to save the number they gave me) and cancelled my trip and miraculously got my $500 back! I remember my mom telling me later that "there's no such thing as free lunch." When I got engaged to Matt a few weeks later, I think he was slightly amused and mostly terrified by this story!!! He told me to think about it...there aren't too many people out there just looking for someone to give thousands of dollars to for nothing. It made sense when he put it that way. (he's so smart...at least I like to think it's that and not that I'm NOT smart)
I do think I get this gullible and hopeful dreaming about winning a drawing from my Mom. I remember on more than one occasion her sending in her card to be entered in the Readers' Digest Sweepstake drawing. She said, "Someone has to win. I prayed that if I win, I will give away 90% of the money". I always thought that sounded nice...I think maybe the Lord chuckled.
But it is fun to think - if someone gave me a million dollars to give away what would I do with it? Bill Gates has been looking at ways to give his money away recently and it has made me think about what that would be like to give away millions. There are so many worthy causes...I don't think there's one right answer. But I have decided the best way would be to give to something that would "send it on ahead". After some thought, I've decided that I would want to give it to 3 different places. Either to help a LOT Of children get adopted into good Christian homes....give it to an organization that rescues children from human trafficking....or to an organization like Compassion International that helps children and their families have a Christian start.
How about you? (to any one who might actually still be reading this post!) What would you do if you had a million bucks to give away?
There might not be any such thing as a free lunch...but it is fun to think about giving it to someone else isn't it?
-Rebekah
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5 comments:
With a million dollars? Well, I would pay off my med school loans!
Aaron...I guess that would be giving it to somebody...but not exactly the "charitable" giving I had in mind:) But I guess I didn't make that clear. HOpe your med school loans aren't in the millions yet!!!
it's funny that you ask this, because i was just thinking about this recently. although i must say that i thought in all honest reality, i would put 1/2 of it away for retirement. (oh how i'd love to never again wonder how to plan for retirement!!!!!!!) then the other 1/2 i'd give to charities. but i'd never decided what charities. but i think i'd like to do something really personal with it. like randomly send $100,000 to someone who didn't have enough money to buy a house. wouldn't that be awesome?!!!
~shar
At this stage in my life I'm watching my mother age and many of the lovely people who have blessed my life. I would love to build a beautiful retirement complex here in Bloomington. Where these dear people could have fellowship together and yet pivacy in their own appartments. They would have a nice place to walk and get excerise, And delicous meals together if they didn't want to cook. Their homes would be cleaned if they wanted them. There are a few very expensive places in Bloomington with long waiting lists to get in. Mine would be Christian run and anyone could live there reguardless of how much money they had. I have all sorts of more ideas about this complex that would take up too much space to elaborate on. Actually a million dollars probably wouldn't build it.
I think about this a lot! My dad used to buy lottery tickets when the jackpots were huge and then he'd ask us all what we'd want if he won and we'd sit and dream for a few minutes of how it would be fun to spend the money.
To be completely honest, I would definitely have to have a little fun with some of the money, but ultimately I would want to give it away to people myself. I think there are a ton of wonderful charities out there, but I think it would be more fun to do things for people that I know personally and be able to help them in ways that they couldn't help themselves. I echo Shar's comment about sending someone money anonymously. Can you imagine just sending a check for $5000 in the mail to someone around Christmas so that they could be able to have a nice Christmas for their family or to send some of your friends away on a vacation because they've been spending their time caring for sick parents and stressed to the max about how to care for them.
I love to give gifts and the older I get the more I realize the phrase, it's more blessed to give than to receive. Of course, it's always fun to get a gift from someone, but I enjoy it so much more to give and do things for people that wouldn't get or do it for themselves.
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