Generosity

Generosity
Patricia Ang

If your income were to double overnight, how much money would you give away? If you were to be the richest person on this earth, how generous do you think you would be? Is generosity only in the form of money? How about being generous with your time and your gifts and talents?

The way people handle money shows the attitude in many aspects of their lives. Wherever your money is, that is where the focus on your attention will be. In Matthew (6:21), it is written ‘For your heart will always be where your riches are.’

For an investor who invest heavily in the stock market, you will probably check the financial pages or your earning statements frequently. For a new home owner who has spent a large amount of money on your house, you will probably spend time and effort taking care of it. For a donor who has contributed a lot of money to a church, you will probably care how the money is used. However do you realise if you give money to people directly or through a charity, you will care more about people. This helps to foster a more generous spirit in you.

Generosity is changing one’s focus from self to others. Isn’t it true that no one likes to be around people who only think of themselves. They enjoy being with people who are givers, those who are willing to take time to be there for you. True generosity is not focusing on income – it begins with the heart. It is about serving others and looking for ways to add value to people. When you are occupied with giving to others and helping them to succeed, it drives away selfishness. You can’t light another path without casting light on your end.

What do people often value other than your money? It is none other than your time and attention. There is no commitment when there is no giving. The people closest to you would rather have you than your money. Ask someone who is in love, nothing can take the place of a spouse’s or partner’s attention. A child would rather have a parent’s undivided attention more than anything else. At work employees with great potential know that a good mentor is more valuable than a mere monetary reward. Hence money is not everything.

The purpose of life is not to win. The purpose of life is to grow and to share. When you look back at the things you have done in your life, you will derive more satisfaction from the pleasures you brought to other people’s lives than when you focus on the times that you outdid and defeated them. When you invest in another person just for the sake of seeing them blossom, with no other benefit that you might receive, you will be the kind of generous person others want to be around.

“One man gives freely, yet grows even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper, he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” (Proverbs 11:24-25)

God give us gifts and talents and HE bless us so that we can be a blessing to others. Think about it, when you keep your gifts and talents to yourself, do you feel a stagnant growth in your life? How about the times you shared your gifts and talents with the people around you, how did you feel? By sharing what we know, we are also growing and learning.

If you completely give of yourself physically, you become exhausted. But when you give of yourself spiritually, you will get more strength. God never gives us strength for tomorrow or for the next hour but only for the strain of the moment.

I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to those that I meet, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.