Learning to Receive

Anybody who knows me, probably knows that I am not very good at receiving.  (I think I've gotten better in recent years, though).  I enjoy my illusion of being independent, and not having to rely on anyone.  I think lately, God is trying to pry that away from me.  In reading the story in Luke 21 of the widow giving her two coins, we were posed with a question I had never considered on reading this passage: how can we affirm the poor in giving the little they have to offer?  It makes me uncomfortable, receiving, especially when I know the sacrifice it requires from others.  Yet after that challenge, I decided to give it a try.  After all, when we receive from others, it affirms that they have something valuable to offer.  One of the commitments in InnerCHANGE is to humility, and God is teaching me to humbly accept that others have something to offer, and that I need them to offer that. 
Whether it is a few rand from my neighbor to thank me for baking him cookies, or a lollipop from kids who have very little money to spare but choose to share it with me, or company on a walk I should not take alone, I am learning to affirm that their gifts are worth giving.  That they have something to offer to others (even a comparatively rich white girl).  Indeed, that they should offer to others. And hopefully, in accepting those things, large and small, God is prying away that illusion that I am self-sufficient, and the prideful feeling that I am the one who has something to offer.  Thank goodness I don't.