Real Catholic Beauty, means giving until it hurts
By Rita Davidson
In the 2nd in this series I’m exploring #RealCatholicBeauty. Beauty in our lives, in the eyes of God and the Church, with a little of the world mixed in. 🙂
Have you ever been in need? I mean REALLY in need. Either you couldn’t pay a bill that month or maybe you just were struggling to find the money to get the kids shoes, or fix the van?
Isn’t it HARD to ask for help? I mean who DO you ask? And once you know, you sheepishly think oh what will my (fill in the blank here) “mechanic” think if I ask for an extension? Or lets see if that used store has shoes for us instead of new. It’s not easy to be on the receiving end. That is unless you meet someone who truly gives until it hurts.
God’s only concern is our salvation. He doesn’t care about our hair or clothes, but if something will help us get to heaven, well He will be all over that. 🙂
After our fire, we were well, HOMELESS. We had to get used to ‘asking’ for things. I had to ask people for rides, (since our van burned in the fire and we had no vehicle for a month). Had to ask if we could use a phone since living at a campsite we had no phone of our own. Had to ask to do laundry, as we had no where to wash our own clothes. Then asking companies if they would be willing to replace our last order for things we had ordered online. Then came approaching companies locally like the Hotel that put us up over the winter when we had to leave our frozen cabin. I called up and asked to talk to the manager, and told him our “story”. That, we were burned out of our house, and were living with no running water, or indoor toilets for the past 6 months. Yes, that story. Then asked if they could put us up over Christmas so our boys could have a tree and a almost normal Christmas. Your breath catches in your throat as you wait for the reply. Oh the groans of pride as it rises up and threatens to overtake you.
Later that day, they had us put up in a 1000square foot suite for the Christmas season. Ahh the irony and the sigh of relief comes.
Then reaching out to the gluten free places to see if they would donate to us glutenfree bread since we were all gluten free. Again, you swallow that big CHUNK of pride in your throat as you croak out your request and patiently await the reply. Yes, we got our glutenfree bread donations for many months.
As hard as it is for us to ‘ask’ for what we need, what is important to God is other half of the equation – the response of those who are “being asked”.
While all these places freely helped us (in exchange for a link on our fundraising website) I was speechless by the kind of response from our new friend “Earl’ whom we met after our fire who said he needs to ‘give until it hurts’.
Looking back at all he has done for us since then has been amazing. From sealing up our trailer, to being a listening ear when we were in the throes of trying to decide how to rebuild after our fire. Never once did he make us feel we were taking too much from him.
It’s not so much what we say, as what we DO. We can GIVE a helping hand, but then spend our time ‘looking back’ to see when we will be done with this, that is not true giving.
This world is sorely in need of generous souls. This doesn’t always mean money. This could be of our time, this could be our clothing, this could be our material goods, this could be our prayers.
Today, step back, and ask yourself, “AM I GIVING UNTIL IT HURTS?”
Real Catholic Beauty is giving until it hurts. We want to reflect Christ in our giving. The other day we went with Earl to get our winter tires off. He has become a family friend and we don’t know anyone out here being in a new area. After we talked for a bit he left, and I went to pay for the tires. The mechanic told me Earl had already paid for them and smiled. Earl was long gone by then.
That BIG smile went up on my face from ear to ear. Here was giving that didn’t hurt. Here was the image of Christ giving until it hurts. I finally realized Real Catholic Beauty is when we can give BEFORE someone asks. Just imagine what the world would be like if all the people in need didn’t have to beg or ask for their needs?
Start today to resolve to become MORE of what God is asking you to be. Be watchful of your friends or Church families that might need that helping hand. Cultivate that Real Catholic Beauty in your soul by being there BEFORE they ask.
God has not promised us tomorrow. START today to spread that new conversation about making #RealCatholicBeauty a part of your life.
With love,
Rita Xo 🙂
©Copyright 2015 Rita Davidson & Little Flowers Family Press All Rights Reserved.
Rita is a Catholic wife, and mother of seven, with three autistic boys. Author, of “Immodesty, Satan’s Virtue” (2001) and speaker, she has a PASSION for making #realcatholicmodesty understood. She is a licensed Hairdresser, and Make Up Pro with a degree in Natural Health who enjoys essential oils. She enjoys making people smile and sharing God’s love with anyone who will listen. After overcoming a stroke, disabilities, they lost everything in a devastating house fire that made them homeless for six months. She is determined to lead souls back to Christ by finding the #realcatholicbeauty in their lives by carrying their crosses with Joy!
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