When my children were small we had a little book called Sharing is fun!, which we would read every time there had been a bust up about who had been playing with whose toys etc.
Children find it hard to share but we get better at this as we get older.
In fact, we get to the point where we can't bear to throw things away because we know that we could share that thing with someone else, that someone else might want it.
But who?
As a Vicar, I'm given things every day because people assume That I will know who in the community wants two large bottles of indigestion medicine or a giant inflatable palm tree.
Sometimes I'm given things that are truly helpful - indeed, you might say an answer to prayer - like all the lovely baby toys we've received for our Carers and Toddlers group, Alphabeats, which will be starting soon.
One surprising gift I recently received was Ginger - the beautiful furry creature you see in the picture above! Not exactly an answer to prayer but very welcome - and even useful. Here she is this morning (my day off) languishing across my laptop this morning as a wonderful reminder of what a day off really should look like!
But the thing about sharing is that you cannot share on your own.
You need someone to share with. You need a community.
And we don't just need to share our things. We need to share our feelings and our experiences in life too.
The old adage goes that a problem shared is a problem halved. And that's true. Furthermore, positive emotions of joy and thankfulness are fairly meaningless if we cannot share them.
We are wonderfully made - male and female, with different racial and physical characteristics - and are only whole when we are together - as communities, as one big family.
So let's pay attention to the Godgiven communities around us and use them to share encouragement on our journeys through life.
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Posted by Martine Oborne