Return to Lender

  

A friend loaned me some books once and I...(gulp)...didn’t give them back for a long time. I mean, a really LOOOOOONG time. 😬🥺 

I feel super bad about this. Oh, I had my excuses but they were all lame...

 

• I was reading a library book and had to finish it first.
• After I read the books I put them on my bookshelf, just to tidy up, and then I forgot about them.
• One of the MurphyBros came home from college and borrowed them and I didn’t realize it.
• It had been such a long time I was too embarrassed to send them back!!  

Ugh!  What was I to do? 😞

Snailmail to the rescue!!! Of course!

Besides enjoying writing letters and decorating envelopes, I love to wrap crap!! (And by crap, I mean, big gifts, small tokens, odds and ends and all manor of stuff to send to folks😏)

I found the evidence, I mean books, and wrapped them up! I had some fun green/white, polka dot paper that I bought from Hobby Lobby at Christmas that was perfect. Serendipitously, I found a coordinating floral paper (at least 8 years old) 🙄 that I used to wrap up a new book I was passing on to my friend. I created some fun paper bows out of the wrapping paper and wrote my letter of confession, I mean apology. 

I packaged everything up into an old shoe box and attached a vintage mugshot on the box lid. (I’m pretty sure she was a famous book thief from the 1960s. 😉) 

Snailmail is fabulous way to return much overdue items!! 

As I was doing my research for this project I looked up book borrowing and lending etiquette. I found numerous articles filled with rules and recommendations and basically it all boiled down to the notion that people can’t be trusted and you should never lend your books to anyone because you will (1) never get them back or (2) they will be ruined in some way. One author went so far as to state their simple rule: Lose a book, lose a friend. 🤔

As frequently happens in my life, my daily Bible reading applied to what I was thinking about. 2 Corinthians chapter 9 happens to be all about giving. I made a note of the qualities of a giver that pleases God:

• Eager to help and bless others
• Enthusiastic
• Give what you’ve decided in your heart to give 
• A cheerful giver!!😊
• Doesn’t give reluctantly or under compulsion, but generously on every occasion. 

That list was in stark contrast to the list of book borrowing and lending rules I found via my internet search. Those qualities weren’t the only things I discovered in my Bible reading. I made a second list, a list of some of the benefits and promises enthusiastic, cheerful givers will experience! 🥰 🎁 

• Whoever sows generously will reap generously 
• God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
• God will supply and increase your store of seed for you to sow and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.
• Others will praise God for your obedience and generosity.
• Others will pray for you. 

Why would I ever want to live a stingy, score-keeping life when God makes such grand promises about how He’ll provide everything I need when I give cheerfully, enthusiastically and generously to others?! 

Sometimes it’s hard to be generous, but if you, like me have been the recipient of someone’s generosity send them a hearty thank you! Pay it back!  Pay it forward!! Do both! Just keep it going! 🥰📬🎁🐌

Snailmail! A lovely way to give a piece of your heart! 💌

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy