November 18th, 2022
Today’s devotion comes to us from Linda Babcock. Linda, together with Sue Reitmeyer, started AUMC’s “Faithful Fingers” group, hoping to have a small group of knitters/crocheters/crafty people to gather with on occasion. Through the years, this has turned into a thriving ministry. To date, nearly 25,000 lovingly handmade items have been given to those who need a little extra warmth, encouragement, and hope.
_________________________
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for God.” Romans 12:1 (The Message translation)
Has there been one person in your life who has influenced what you’ve chosen to do – your job, your hobbies and other interests? As I look back, I’ve had many such encouraging people. Besides family, along the way there were many school teachers, Sunday School teachers, pastors, camp counselors and friends to lead by example. I’d like to focus on what a difference one of those people made for me. (There are lots of stories to tell about the others, too, another day.)
My mother was an avid, life-long knitter. (Pictured here, circa 1949.) During high school, she knit socks for soldiers and bandages for the American Red Cross. Years later, after having children and grandchildren, she used to plan her projects months ahead of time, so that not one of us was left out in the cycle of her sweater-knitting. Sweaters take a long time to make and Mom had a husband, four children and eight grandchildren in the queue for their own personalized color and design. We looked forward to our turn coming around and being able to browse through all her knitting magazines to find a style we liked and then picking out our favorite color yarn. (The more complicated, the better – she really didn’t like it when one of us chose an ”easy” pattern!) Then the stitching began and her love was in every single stitch. Besides passing down the sweaters through the generations, my mother also passed along her crafting influence and her quiet, steady faith.
This one faithful person taught me how to knit and showed by example how important it is to love one another by our actions as well as our words. As a result, I’ve made connections with other people who love crafting as much as I do. We’ve enjoyed the fellowship of knitting and crocheting together. Each one of us is connected not only with one another, but also with a network of other people who love the same thing and suggest places where a need for our made-with-love items will be welcomed. Facebook has actually made us a global community of likeminded folks.
Over the years since our crafting group started at AUMC, we’ve been blessed to give away nearly 25,000 things…and all thanks to the quiet faith of one person > who taught another > who encouraged more > who joined with a group > who all wanted to help others. Who’s your one – and how can you be one to someone else?
Never underestimate the influence your life has on others. Take your everyday, ordinary life and place it before God as an offering. If you love to knit like I do, or if you love to cook meals or sing or bake or care for children or the elderly or read to someone or rake leaves or fix cars or teach Sunday school or talk on the phone helping people connect with one another, you’ll be amazed at what God will do with your precious everyday life!!
- Linda Babcock
“Make My Life an Offering”
Use this link to listen: https://youtu.be/IwP12_O9dRE
_________________________
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for God.” Romans 12:1 (The Message translation)
Has there been one person in your life who has influenced what you’ve chosen to do – your job, your hobbies and other interests? As I look back, I’ve had many such encouraging people. Besides family, along the way there were many school teachers, Sunday School teachers, pastors, camp counselors and friends to lead by example. I’d like to focus on what a difference one of those people made for me. (There are lots of stories to tell about the others, too, another day.)
My mother was an avid, life-long knitter. (Pictured here, circa 1949.) During high school, she knit socks for soldiers and bandages for the American Red Cross. Years later, after having children and grandchildren, she used to plan her projects months ahead of time, so that not one of us was left out in the cycle of her sweater-knitting. Sweaters take a long time to make and Mom had a husband, four children and eight grandchildren in the queue for their own personalized color and design. We looked forward to our turn coming around and being able to browse through all her knitting magazines to find a style we liked and then picking out our favorite color yarn. (The more complicated, the better – she really didn’t like it when one of us chose an ”easy” pattern!) Then the stitching began and her love was in every single stitch. Besides passing down the sweaters through the generations, my mother also passed along her crafting influence and her quiet, steady faith.
This one faithful person taught me how to knit and showed by example how important it is to love one another by our actions as well as our words. As a result, I’ve made connections with other people who love crafting as much as I do. We’ve enjoyed the fellowship of knitting and crocheting together. Each one of us is connected not only with one another, but also with a network of other people who love the same thing and suggest places where a need for our made-with-love items will be welcomed. Facebook has actually made us a global community of likeminded folks.
Over the years since our crafting group started at AUMC, we’ve been blessed to give away nearly 25,000 things…and all thanks to the quiet faith of one person > who taught another > who encouraged more > who joined with a group > who all wanted to help others. Who’s your one – and how can you be one to someone else?
Never underestimate the influence your life has on others. Take your everyday, ordinary life and place it before God as an offering. If you love to knit like I do, or if you love to cook meals or sing or bake or care for children or the elderly or read to someone or rake leaves or fix cars or teach Sunday school or talk on the phone helping people connect with one another, you’ll be amazed at what God will do with your precious everyday life!!
- Linda Babcock
“Make My Life an Offering”
Use this link to listen: https://youtu.be/IwP12_O9dRE
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