Free Clothes!

Our neighborhood garage sale is going on this weekend, so there has been quite a bit of traffic on our street. Yesterday, I set our old vacuum cleaner out on the sidewalk with a sign that said, "FREE - needs repair" and someone actually took it! I wasn't sure if anyone would want it since it's broken, and I was a little surprised at how quickly it disappeared. I started thinking about what else I could get rid of.

We have had several boxes and bags of clothes sitting in our bedroom for months waiting to be taken to the Salvation Army, but we just hadn't gotten around to actually dropping them off. So, this morning, I started taking those boxes of clothes to the sidewalk. I put a sign on the first one that said "Free Clothes" and went back inside to get more. When I came back out with more boxes, there was a family there picking up the first box. They waited for me to bring out all the boxes and bags, and they took all of them! They kept saying thank you, and so did I! I know they were very grateful to get the clothes, but I felt like they were doing ME a huge favor. It was a double blessing, for sure.

I don't know why I never thought of doing this before. Our neighborhood has a garage sale weekend twice a year (once in the fall and once in the spring), so I think I will try to do this every time! I'm going to try to think of a way to make it a witness. Maybe I'll write some verses on note cards and stick them in between the layers of clothing or maybe I can get David to put in a few copies of the little Gideon New Testaments (maybe some in English and some in Spanish). Not sure yet, but I'm excited about it!

Proverbs 31:20
She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.

Ezekiel 16:49
Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.

Matthew 25:40
I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.