{"id":561,"date":"2012-04-30T11:00:23","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T16:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/?p=561"},"modified":"2012-04-30T11:00:23","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T16:00:23","slug":"bless-and-be-blessed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/?p=561","title":{"rendered":"Bless and Be Blessed"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s fascinating to me how the act of giving reaches beyond blessing others and comes back to let you feel just as blessed.<\/p>\n

I help out as a youth leader at my church. \u00a0This weekend one of my youth group girls, Miranda, went to her very first formal school dance, prom. \u00a0As you might be able to remember (or if you are younger, you might be able to anticipate), prom is a big deal. \u00a0This is often the first time we have the opportunity to wear long, flowy gowns or sharp, black tuxes (or popsicle orange and powder blue tuxes if you feel like following the fashion sense of my beloveds, Harry and Lloyd).<\/p>\n

Miranda called me up this weekend and asked if I would assist her in doing her makeup, hair, and then take photos. \u00a0As a person who grew up studying TV shows like What Not to Wear<\/em>\u00a0and America’s Next Top Model<\/em>, I jumped at the chance to have yet another opportunity to doll someone up all nice and pretty.<\/p>\n

Turns out this makeup, hair-curling, picture-taking fun time was much more than just fun. \u00a0Miranda later told me how she has never felt so pretty. \u00a0Miranda’s mom gave me a tight hug with tears in her eyes and expressed her gratitude for making Miranda feel special.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The lovely Miranda<\/p><\/div>\n

A simple gift, like offering to make someone over, can go a long way. \u00a0A simple gesture can mean so much more to someone than we realize.<\/p>\n

I feel extremely blessed by my time spent with Miranda and her mom. \u00a0Who knew spending time trying to make someone else feel so special could in turn make me feel so blessed. \u00a0I feel that warm, fuzzy feeling swelling up inside now.<\/p>\n

I want to hear from you. \u00a0When was a time where you gave and in turn felt so blessed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s fascinating to me how the act of giving reaches beyond blessing others and comes back to let you feel just as blessed. I help out as a youth leader at my church. \u00a0This weekend one of my youth group girls, Miranda, went to her very first formal school dance, prom. \u00a0As you might be able to remember (or if Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[74,73,72],"coauthors":[19],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-emotions-2","tag-blessed","tag-blessing","tag-giving"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/472881_225687660871247_156874914419189_356187_795788913_o.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions\/565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=561"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}