JOY IN GIVING

JOY IN GIVING

Responsible stewardship of God’s blessings always motivates us to sow and share.  At some point in our lives, we should become keenly focused on giving back and paying forward the manifold blessings that Heaven has graciously planted and prospered in and around us.

Lucy Ferris, a writer for “Reader’s Digest Magazine,” penned the following inspirational story about giving:

In the summer of 1975, I’d just graduated from college in Southern California and received a 1968 Ford Capri for a graduation present.  I had my first job, in Los Angeles.  One Sunday night, thinking myself a very independent grown-up, I left my uncle’s place in South Laguna after a visit, without confessing to him that I had less than an eighth of a tank of gas and no cash to buy more en route to L.A.  I pulled onto the Pacific Coast Highway and watched the needle descend as I headed north.  When I started running on fumes, I pulled into a gas station.  There was no self-serve then; there were few credit cards, and no ATMs.

I literally begged the guy at the station.  I could write him a check for gas, I said, or I could sleep in my car and try to walk to a town and find a bank the next morning.  As he was informing me that I could sleep in my car but he’d have me arrested, a station wagon pulled up to the next pump.  The driver—a thin, plain, middle-aged guy—overheard the tail end of my failed plea.  As the attendant went to serve him, he nodded at me. “Fill her tank first,” he said.

“Really?” I said.  Hope bloomed.  “Oh, thank you!  Thank you!  But please.  I just need two dollars’ worth.  I just need to get home.”

“Fill it,” he repeated to the attendant.  Then to me, “You’ll do the same one day, for someone else.”

I keep looking for that hapless young person, hoping to rescue her on the road.  Meanwhile, in case she never shows up, I try other acts of random kindness.  That quiet driver is always at the pump a few feet away, instructing the attendant to fill mine first.  What a blessing he was and is to me!

Sisters and brothers, you never know when, where, or how the seed you have sown into someone else’s life will bloom and multiply.  All too often we are motivated toward giving for the sole purpose of receiving.  But why not consider an attitude adjustment regarding your personal giving?  Try giving as an act of love and kindness, not with an expectation to receive, as much as a determination to bless and lift others.

Unselfish giving will surely manifest bountiful blessings in and around your life.  Jesus Christ offered this advice: “Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.  For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” (Luke 6:38) I do not believe that Jesus’ prophesied result will always manifest as material or financial blessings.  Sometimes we are simply endowed with sheer joy – a happy heart and a satisfied spirit – knowing full well that the seed we have sown will make all the difference in the life of someone else.

Sisters and brothers, be continually blessed, and please (above all else) MAKE SURE YOU ARE READY TO MEET OUR SOON COMING KING. Maranatha!