First of all, what is “generously?” We all know about giving, right? But what does giving generously indicate? According to a web source, dictionary.com “Generous / generously” is being liberal in giving or sharing; unselfish. It is free from meanness or smallness of mind or character; magnanimous. It is large; abundant; ample: IE a generous portion of pie.” Okay, so that brings some good clarity.
Who is the very definition of generous giving? I would say …God is! He is the ultimate in generous giving!
Our lives begin and end with Him, Father God. The greatest commandment is to love Him and to love others as ourselves. Mark 12:28-31 Hmmm. I think “giving generously” is all over this commandment!
As I sit here with my thoughts and prayers, my Bible and my little dog at my feet asleep on the blanket I am overwhelmed with thoughts and ideas on Giving Generously. I am prayerfully moving into this LARGE topic and want to say at the start that this will not be exhaustive on this topic for you. This is a wee brainstorming time to just get the creative juices going! I am simply planting some Springtime seeds on the topic and you get to pray about, take a deeper dive with and come up with a plan to … Give Generously!
As a Christian Coach I believe everything begins and ends with God.
So we begin here!
We have been given everything we need from God! We are the recipients of salvation, the free gift of the Holy Spirit as our guide, His Word the Bible, our strength, our direction, the people in our lives, our housing, our work, our money, our gifts and talents, our time, our very breath and health and much more! All of the many many gifts we get are given generously to us by our God, our loving Father!
We give back to Him our love, our loyalty, our prayers, our obedience, our repentance, our worship and adoration, our time, our tithes ($$ to go toward the work here for His kingdom’s advancement), our gifts and talents, our service, and much much more!
With the fact in mind that Everything and Everyone and Every moment we have is a gift from the Father God … it begs the question: “How then can we “Give Generously” on this side of Heaven?”
Verses on Giving in the Bible for you to ponder … a few of many:
“The Widows Mite” … Luke 21:1-4 and Mark 12:41-44. Jesus observing the rich giving out of their surplus and then a dear widow giving out of her poverty and what was sustaining her for living.
Deuteronomy 15:10 “You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.”
2 Corinthians 9:7 “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Proverbs 22:9 “The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.”
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Jesus, in Acts 20:35
A few noteworthy quotes on giving:
John Wooden, famous UCLA basketball coach and life-changer, “You can’t have a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.”
“As base a thing as money often is, yet it can be transmuted into everlasting treasure. It can be converted into food for the hungry and clothing for the poor. It can keep a missionary actively winning lost men to the light of the gospel and thus transmute itself into heavenly values. Any temporal possession can be turned into everlasting wealth. Whatever is given to Christ is immediately touched with immortality.” A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), American pastor and writer
Mother Teresa’s Mom: “My child, never eat a single mouthful unless you are sharing it with others,” she counseled her daughter. When Agnes (Mother Teresa’s birth name) asked who the people eating with them were, her mother uniformly responded, “Some of them are our relations, but all of them are our people.” Biography.com
Giving Generously:
Give Time:
- Volunteer to help. There are no shortage of ways to give time! Help a neighbor in need or a family member. Help at your church. Help at the local Crisis Pregnancy Center or Shelter for the Homeless or a local school or nursing home. Go on a Mission trip. Take a meal into a friend who is hurting, ill or just home from the hospital, or maybe cannot cook for themselves safely. Maybe take a meal into a family who have a newborn at home or offer to babysit a friend’s children. Hold the hand of a Senior … make certain to go out of your way to greet them. Pray about DOING SOMETHING. ONE THING. Do what you are gifted to do, passionate to help with or called by the Lord to do … this time. This One Thing. Small things speak volumes!
- Some chapters in our lives call on us for extraordinary gifts of time. Young parents are you missing sleep? Yes, this chapter will be over before you can turn around although it seems like it goes on forever … hang on … enjoy those 3 a.m. feeds or snuggles. Caretakers you too are called upon to give time after time. This is but for a season. Glean what you can be grateful for in this situation. Glean what the Lord is teaching you and strengthening you for in the next chapter … as that will come.
Give Money:
- Donate $$ to worthy causes and charities. Who needs help? Where do you begin? Pray about it … I guarantee the Lord will nudge you through the Holy Spirit. There are always SO many opportunities with needs. Here are ideas from my heart to yours.
- Ideas: Disaster areas such as the recent earthquake stricken Ecuador. www.samaritanspurse.org is a reputable ministry to give to, one which I trust. Also, a coaching client and sister in the Lord asked me to forward the Go Fund Me page built by her family and friends. https://www.gofundme.com/letsbuildhope which is another way for you to share with those in desperate need in Ecuador.
- Ideas: JoniandFriends.org for their Family Retreats or Wheels for the World programs or for other needs of this wonderful International ministry to those with disabilities.
- Tithe (give) to your local church!
- Ideas: The Fernando Foundation. Near and dear to my heart … this foundation was founded by my precious friends, Jim and Nancy Dornan and was started in honor of their friend and the caretaker of one of my heros, their son Eric. Eric is amazing, has changed my life (!) and power soccer is one of the many things Eric excels at. Our two sons were also very involved in soccer and our oldest son Nathan, had he lived, likely would have been in a wheel chair like Eric. I think power soccer would’ve been part of our lives too! Check it out! https://www.fernandofoundation.org/FerDon1.asp
- Ideas: www.WorldVision.org (adopt a child in a needy situation), Missionaries and Ministries: Navigators.org, org, CRU.org (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ), EastWest.org
- Ideas: Church plant donation. This idea is the most near and dear to my heart as our youngest Son is a pastor in the Oakland area and he and our daughter in law are planting a church. Check out www.OaklandStartupChurch.org if you’d like more information! Pretty amazing opportunity!
- Ideas: Your turn! Fill in the blank! ____________________________
Give Encouragement: Absolutely FREE! Giving Generously in using our words to encourage costs us little to absolutely nothing! Have you ever heard the Silver Boxes story? Life changing! Here are a couple of resources for you.
1) A brief quote from Gifts of Encouragement: Silver Boxes by Ella Mae Tyrkalo on http://lifehopeandtruth.com
“How can we give gifts of encouragement like silver boxes with bows on top when talking to others? Here are some examples:
- You can give family members verbal gifts many times throughout the day. Every time you cheerfully listen with interest to your children tell about their activities at school or your mate tell about his or her day at work, you are presenting them with a silver box with a bow on top.
- When you go to the department store and need help with selections or when you pay for your purchase, you are giving a gift of encouragement by being positive, telling the clerk you appreciate his or her help and wishing the person a good day.
- When you telephone a Church member who has been ill or discouraged in some way, you are extending a verbal gift of encouragement.
- When you send cards of encouragement, it’s like you are sending a silver box with a bow on top.
There are so many ways we can incorporate this process into our daily lives.”
2) Check out the YouTube: Florence Littauer – Silver Boxes (a book by her) & a story about the music in people. It is awesome and life-changing!
Give STUFF:
Are there things which you and I have that need to be gifted to someone else? Likely! They might really need them. They may be praying for that very ____ (fill in the blank: casserole dish, sweater, book, teddy bear?)right now!
Simplify Your Life (for a good cause!) Check out this blog for some great ideas! LifeWay Resource: Simplify your Life
Give Generously to Ourselves:
We need rest, time for exercise, cooking and eating healthy foods, drinking plenty of clean water and caring for our bodies as the temple He generously made and gave us charge over … this is not sacrilegious ….this is obedience. I believe it is an act of worship to the Father who created us. Give yourself the time and energy it takes to take care of you! Obedience in the basics of self-care does not equate with making taking care of our bodies an idol we almost worship. Be careful if this becomes a temptation! But it is also disobedient on the other hand to neglect care for the gift that the Father created and gave us to manage. Balance and moderation!
Two Cautions Today:
- Sometimes we feel that we give and give and give and it appears it isn’t making a difference in that life or situation. I encourage you not to grow weary in your obedience to His call in your life to Give Generously. There are times we just need to trust Him and GIVE generously even when it doesn’t necessarily make sense. We need to be okay with the fact that we may never see the end result. He does and that is what matters. A very sweet old movie with Haley Mills, Pollyanna, is a perfect example of this! Growing up our whole little rural school (80-100 in the whole school K-12th) would watch this in our auditorium as a group. Really a powerful movie I would suggest you rent or own!
- We also need to be cautious of making assumptions that others are not giving, not serving, not discipling, not praying, not spending time in the Word … just because we don’t personally see it or hear of it. Okay … let’s be honest … we likely have or struggle with doing this at some level. Let’s be very careful to work in a self-disciplined way at simply doing what WE are called to do and keep our eyes on Jesus, not on others! Keeping our eyes on the finish line of our race, not looking side to side at other “runners.” We are taught to give in privacy (Matthew 6:4). We don’t announce our every move, text, phone call, email, caring card, gift, time spent with others in our lives to others whether an “authority” over us or not. It is only the Lord’s to know (and He does) whether or not we are “Giving Generously” … and as any of us are tempted to “judge others” in this way we need to ask forgiveness and repent.
Coaching Resources:
- · Matthew West – Do Something – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_RjndG0IX8
- Do Something: Make Your Life Count by Miles McPherson
- One: Impossible Starts Here by Mayernick and Oatsval
- The Letters DVD: Mother Teresa … in the name of God’s poor (Powerful DVD … talk about Giving Generously! I just watched it this week … a great movie to give us perspective and ideas.)
Coaching Questions:
- How will you Give Generously to God this week in spending time with Him? Write it down. Do it!
- How will you Give Generously to others this week? Write it down. Do it!
- How will you Give Generously to yourself this week? Write it down. Do it!
I’d love to hear your feedback! If we keep our eyes on what we are to do to live out our calling and obedience to God … and then do it … we are influencing. We are influencing our families, our neighborhoods, our churches, our schools, our culture … yes … even our politics. Concentrate on what you CAN do and then go forward and do so!
May I encourage you on this National Day of Prayer to pray for America …or the country you live in (or both … smile). Pray for our leaders. Pray for revival!
Blessings as you Give Generously!
Coach Kathleen
Master Certified Christian and Professional Life Coach
Personal Retreat Coaching with Coach Kathleen 