Topics:<\/b> Christmas; Dishonesty; Generosity; Giving; Lying; Money; Sacrifice; Stewardship<\/p>\n
References:<\/b> 1 Chronicles 21:24; Matthew 6:1\u20134; 2 Corinthians 9:12\u201315<\/p>\n
A. A. Milne, author of the Winnie the Pooh books, wrote a seasonal piece titled \u201cA Hint for Next Christmas.\u201d He tells of William who went to a big Christmas party and was stunned to discover that everyone had brought gifts for everyone else, a courtesy he had completely missed. He gave some thought to this problem and then went alone into the dining room while all the other people were in the parlor. There in the dining room the gifts were piled at each person\u2019s place at the table. Milne writes:<\/p>\n
The top parcel said, \u201cTo John and Mary from Charles.\u201d William took out his fountain pen and added a couple of words to the inscription. It then read, \u201cTo John and Mary from Charles and William.\u201d<\/p>\n
He moved on to the next place. \u201cTo Angela from Father,\u201d said the top parcel. \u201cAnd William,\u201d wrote William. At his hostess\u2019s place he hesitated a moment. The first present there was for \u201cDarling Mother, from her loving children.\u201d It did not seem that \u201cand William\u201d was quite suitable. But his hostess was not to be deprived of William\u2019s kindly thought, so twenty seconds later the handkerchiefs \u201cfrom John and Mary and William\u201d expressed all the nice things he was feeling for her.<\/p>\n
Nice try, but how pitiful. We only truly give when it costs us something.<\/p>\n
\u2014Based on A. A. Milne, \u201cA Hint for Next Christmas,\u201d A Christmas Treasury<\/i> (Viking, 1982)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Topics: Christmas; Dishonesty; Generosity; Giving; Lying; Money; Sacrifice; Stewardship References: 1 Chronicles 21:24; Matthew 6:1\u20134; 2 Corinthians 9:12\u201315 A. A. Milne, author of the Winnie the Pooh books, wrote a seasonal piece titled \u201cA Hint for Next Christmas.\u201d He tells of William who went to a big Christmas party and was stunned to discover that … Continue reading “GIVING
\n THAT COSTS SOMETHING”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}