"you cannot give what you do not have"!!!! a word for me to remember

There are those people in our lives who, simply by being in their presence, impart the gift of who they are to us and we become more for having been with them.
We'd been needing to brace the sagging tree house for some time now...
and today, the grandkids were coming for a visit while their mommies helped a friend who's children had that yuck going around... H1N1
Troy gathered all the materials that were heavy and cumbersome and we waited.
I asked why didn't he just get it done before the kids got here?
"Because, he said, it will be more theirs if they have a part in rebuilding the broken part."
So I watched 2 little boys learn how the heavy jack worked,
how bracing the fallen middle gave new life and stability to the fun place they played,
how helping PopT not only meant getting out the tools, but keeping up with them and then putting them away when you finished!
I watched PopT give these two little guys the assurance that only one who is assured can give...
The assurance that
"You can do this!"

This simple scene that so many grandparents get to play out,
brought a very strong word to me today:
YOU CANNOT GIVE WHAT YOU DO NOT HAVE!!!
If Troy did not know that he could have fixed the broken treehouse, he never could have given our two grandsons the assurance that they could fix it.
How can I give joy to someone if I do not have it myself?
How can I give peace to someone if I do not have peace in me?
How do I give comfort, or assurance, or confidence, or security, or even LOVE to someone
if I myself do not feel these things?
The simplest thing in the world is to hand someone one of my possessions or my money... but how much more do I give if I give them the confidence that "this is going to be okay... you can get through this... you can do it!"... I've found that dignity doesn't have a pricetag on it!
and... only someone with dignity, character and integrity can offer this to another.
The offer is not the giver's character,
the offer is the assurance that it is already in the one receiving.
(does that make sense to anyone??)
When you "receive a prophet, you get the gift of the prophet."
To me that doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to get a personal word from the prophet,
(although that too can be a treasure the prophet drops into you)
it means that rubbing up against and believing in his gift, that same ability in you is called forth.
If I feel badly about me, it is quite possible I will become easily offended as well as offer offense,
but, if I feel good about myself... and more importantly
IF I KNOW WHO I AM!!!
I can offer the ones around me the grace to be who they are or
the patience of their becoming who they were created to be.

PopT knows that these little guys are meant to be men of character and integrity...
and that they will finish what they start.
That is who their Poppy is, and so...
that gift can be given to them from one who has the same.

"Look guys... I think we did it!"
"It looks straight to me PopT... let's put your drill bits and tools up and then play."
"It's fun to work PopT, can we do it again?"
"We sure will guys... we surely will!"

note: There is a scripture that comes to my heart over and over as I think of being able to give only what we ourselves have... may I share it? and let the Holy Spirit finish it as only He can?
Acts 3

• 1.
• One day at three o'clock in the afternoon, Peter and John were on their way into the Temple for prayer meeting.

• 2.
• At the same time there was a man crippled from birth being carried up. Every day he was set down at the Temple gate, the one named Beautiful, to beg from those going into the Temple.

• 3.
• When he saw Peter and John about to enter the Temple, he asked for a handout.

• 4.
• Peter, with John at his side, looked him straight in the eye and said, "Look here."

• 5.
• He looked up, expecting to get something from them.

• 6.
• Peter said, "I don't have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!"

• 7.
• He grabbed him by the right hand and pulled him up. In an instant his feet and ankles became firm.

• 8.
• He jumped to his feet and walked.

Blessings to us all as we walk with the Spirit of the Living Lord shining through our lives and spilling onto the others who are allowed into our paths!
May we KNOW WHO WE ARE and be assured of the value and worth of our lives to the ONE WHO gave His only Son for our very beings... as His children of Light!