Food for thought

During a recent conversation with my husband I realised that we are pressured by family and friends on everything one way or the other. We do charity every year and every special occasion we believe we should do something charitable in order to give something back in gratitude. I come from a very religious and a rather conservative family and he is brought up in a more open minded and a rather free thinking atmosphere. Over the last few years we have understood each other's limitations and strengths even with respect to our outlook of small and big things around us which is largely influenced by our background.I must say we have taught each other some valuable lessons , sometimes with some real heated arguements and some more subtle .
We have managed to influence each other positively as well as negatively. Family is an important part of everybody's life and just like every one else we are very grateful we have a great family around us. But in more than one occasion our difference in the up bringing glares back at us when we are the middle of our extended family.We have somehow understood how to deal with that difference when we are by ourselves but we most certainly cannot ignore that when our family is around us.
He is very charitable and I have never held him back from doing charity of any kind but this year with so many natural calamities and so much hunger around the world I would really be happy if people spent a little bit more time helping the helpless and not spend so much time building temples. They alwayse say serve mankind and you serve god. We are afraid to make that call because we do not want to be an outcast amongst our family and friends. We want to be good for our family and the people we know and not be called an atheist. In one hand we do feel bad about what we read/see in the news but when we have the opportunity to do anything about it we don't. We think about ourselves my husband,my kids,my dad and my mom. I want to donate to a temple and make sure my family is safe. When they one good deed leads to another ,why not spread the message . Why can't we be the one take one step forward and make a different choice this time. We might be able to spread the message to our family in return and they might start to think differently about charity too. God is a faith who helps us going through the tough times. Why not take this as his calling for help to our fellowmen who are in need of a roof to stay and food to eat ? He doesn't need his temple expanded now as much as they need food and shelter.