Disciples Path: Week 3: Day 3 – The Real Reason You Should Give

Proverbs 11:24-25, The Message

The world of the generous gets larger and larger;
    the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.

The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed;
    those who help others are helped.

Are there people that you know that come to mind when I say the word “grinch.”  HWhat is it about them that causes that association?  For me, it is my observation that they are not only ungenerous, they actively resist participating in generosity.  The other thing I’ve noticed about such people is they usually seem very justified in their ungenerous actions and quite unrepentant about it.  I suppose there are any number of causes for this attitude like self-centeredness, greed,  a perceived lack of resources or something else.  In any case, the resistance they exhibit seems unhealthy to most of us. 

This is because generosity is one of those qualities for which most people want to be known.   However, it seems that all of us have “grinch-like” tendencies from time to time. When my children were growing up, we had a Christmas Day and Birthday Day rule.          On those days when they received a gift, they were allowed NOT to share those gifts (often toys, games, etc) with others.  After that day was over, however, the expectation was that they would be willing let their siblings and others play with the toys.  In other words, generosity was expected.   The rule was not when their mother and I made it.  There were bitter complaints and resistant attitudes.  

Over the years though, something amazing happened.  Because generosity was part of the discipline administered in our household, our children actually become more generous with what they had been given.  The sharing rule became obsolete because our children would almost always share their gifts with others on the first day.  Their generosity “muscles” became stronger with long-term discipline.  They also discovered that on those special days, because of their generosity, they got to play with more toys on the first day because they were no longer limited to just what they had individually received.  They had learned the wisdom of the above statement; “the world of the generous gets larger and larger.”

The point is we human beings who have grinch-like tendencies can become more and more generous through disciplining each other and/or ourselves to be more generous.  Such training may involve some discomfort and even some active protest (as it did with my children).   But the result is that our world and hearts grow bigger just as muscles do with strength training. 

Questions:  When was the last time you confronted your inner “grinch?”  What would training yourself to be more generous right now look like? 

Song:  Open Hands, Open Heart | A Worship Song About Generosity