Offerings-Collections-Tithings

 Each week we pass the collection tray in church.  We also have many opportunities to be generous throughout the whole week. But what do we truly have to offer back to the Creator of all? The idea of giving something to God is just, almost perverse.  Does not everything in the universe come from God?  Does not everything in life hold together in God’s sustaining creation? How can we return something to the Source from which it all comes? Can we give water to the well that supplies us with all the water we have? How often do we even stingily give up control of our tithes?  God, help us!
  It is so easy for us to hoard stuff instead of viewing all we have as tools with which we are to serve each other and glorify God.  May we be so inspired by God generosity that we cannot help but follow in his generous footsteps and bless the world all around us. 
   Heavenly Father, Creator of all that is good,
   Vandelia Church bows down humbly before You,
   You, who spoke life into being out of nothingness,
   You, who created the seeds of the of the cotton plant,
   You, who cause the moon to shine brilliantly and give us hope in our darkness,
   May we discover in each child your holy image.
   Help us in all our brokenness, ineptitude, pride, and self-righteousness
   to joyfully desire but only one thing:
   May our broken lives honestly and humbly returned to You,
   Somehow mysteriously glorify YOU in all your goodness.
   In your Holy Name we boldly ask this to be so.

Sharie Patty