Are You Giving Today?

By: American Decency Staff

 

We just celebrated Thanksgiving, the wonderful holiday where we set aside a time to take notice of the blessings given to us by our Creator. That, anyway, is the purpose envisioned by the originator of the national holiday, Abraham Lincoln who proclaimed his desire that it would be recognized by Americans as, “a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe.”

Our humanistic society has sought to reduce it to a simple day of football, family, and food. All of which, are (or can be) counted among our blessings, so long as they don’t distract us from showing gratitude to our “beneficent Creator.”

It is often jokingly referred to as “Turkey Day,” and National Geographic’s website for kids describes it as, “a national holiday honoring the early settlers and their harvest feast known as the first Thanksgiving.”

Ironically enough, the day after we express our gratitude for our blessings is the biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday, followed a few days later by the biggest online shopping day of the year, Cyber Monday.

To be fair, many shoppers are pulling coats over their PJs at 3 AM to go shopping for other people, and there’s an element of self sacrifice there, but these are often still days dedicated to getting more stuff. And, sadly, these sales events eat into our day of gratitude more and more.

In short, our culture makes it easy for Thanksgiving to turn into one more day about ourselves and our comfort, rather than the humility and gratitude which are the foundations for the holiday in the first place!

It’s in the light of this realization that recognition of a new annual celebration is taking root, and it’s called “Giving Tuesday.”

“Giving Tuesday” began in 2014, and has grown quickly as large corporations and foundations increase their sponsorships and bring attention to it.

The idea is simply to have a day where, rather than a company urging consumers to buy their own products, they instead encourage and even incentivize consumers to make donations.

For example, the Gates Foundation met the first $2 million donated to non-profits via Facebook today, and Facebook, just for today, has waved the 5% fee they usually take for donations given through their site.

It is a great opportunity for non-profits, which are increasingly underfunded these days, to get a financial boost.

You might see where this is going, but we just happen to be one of those non-profit ministries, and our finances… we’ll just say they keep us on our toes.

God has blessed us immensely through the generosity of his people, and we are so grateful to all of you who have given and prayed for us!

For those of you who are inspired by the spirit of Giving Tuesday, would you consider giving to ADA?

Your gifts will go to spread the light of Truth to an ever darkening world through email alerts like this one, our monthly newsletters, and our conferences and events!

Thank you for your involvement and support of ADA.

We are grateful for you!

To stand with usplease click here or mail your gift to American Decency Association (ADA), PO Box 202, Fremont, MI 49412. 

American Decency Association is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability

 

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