NISHIOKA'S GENEROUSITY

"Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do." - Khalil Gibran

Mr. Nishioka, aged seventy, was a local businessman. He was seriously ill with
kidney disease and had been told by doctors that he needed a transplant urgently. He had almost given up hope of finding a matching organ until the waiter, Jose Rocasa, fifty-two, volunteered one of his own. Nishioka said, 'I didn't have long to survive and the doctors said that it was unlikely that they could find a match in time. But with a good man here and a lot of help from above, now I am alive and well.'

In the twenty-two years that Mr Nishioka had frequented the hotel, Mr Rocasa had been his waiter, and recalled that he had always been kind and affable - and had tipped generously. 'I just wanted to help him,' he said. 'For years, we have this friendship in which he comes to lunch and I do my best to make him very happy, and he is always good to me in return. So of course I say, "Don't worry - I can give you a kidney."'

Mr Nishioka sowed generousity and he reaped generousity! The Bible shows that: "We reap WHAT we sow. We reap LATER than we sow, and We reap MUCH MORE than we sow." There's no way Mr.

THE GIFT OF MONEY 22; BE THOUGHTFUL, LEAVE A TIP

"Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people." - Dennis Prager 

In the days when an ice cream Sundae cost much less, a 10 year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. “How much is an ice cream Sundae?” he asked. “50¢,” replied the waitress. The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

“Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?” he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. “35¢!” she brusquely replied. The little boy again counted his coins. “I’ll have the plain ice cream,” he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left.

When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies. You see, he couldn’t have the Sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

The normal custom for humans - myself included - is to try to "CAN all we can get, and GET all we can CAN." That very character reminds us of children, who attempt to get everything for themselves, with their tiny hands until they become so full they can't get anything else. In actual fact, that's how we are - most of us. Always thinking ONLY of ourselves; what we have, what we need, how we can get more and how we can preserve the little we have. The reality of the matter is that we have to grow up.

Giving Opens Hearts

WISDOM NUGGET: Giving a gift can open doors; it gives access to important people!

 

Source: Photopin

“People don’t want to know how much you know, until they know how much you care,”

                                                                                                   - John C. Maxwell

 

 One of the most effective ways of winning people over is through giving. Giving has the power to melt hearts, encourage the embittered and battered. Giving can encourage people who wouldn't even be patient enough to hear a sermon.

A man bought a field next to a farmer who had been engaged in a long-standing dispute with the former owner about the exact boundary line between this field and his own property. When the new owner saw the farmer near the fence one day, he greeted him with the words, "I'm your new neighbour; and I would like to talk to you about the boundary line between our properties." The farmer assumed a belligerent attitude and said, "What about it?" "How much of this field do you claim as belonging to you?" asked the new owner. "I claim that your fence is a good two feet over on my property," replied the farmer. "Well, then, I want you to reset the fence four feet back on my side," replied the new owner. This completely took the fight out of the farmer and was the beginning of a new spirit of concession on his part also. A week letter both men had become such good friends and the Christian began to share his philosophies with his new neighbour.

Let your giving go before you. It has the ability of opening doors and making hearts receptive. Carson McCullers said “The closest thing to being cared for is to care for someone else.” Giving is the most powerful expression of care.

Lovers Only

 

WISDOM NUGGET: "Perhaps the greatest gift is a portion of thyself."

                                                                                          - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source: Photo Pin

Rule No. 5 of giving is the rule of love. Have you noticed that giving flows freely & lavishly when it has to do with someone you love? That is the natural order. Amy Carmichael once said “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.” In other words, not every giver is a lover, but every true lover is a helpless giver. What naturally followed was that “He gave…”

The story is told of the husband of Mary Kay Ash, who used to be a man heavily addicted to smoking. All efforts by Mary Kay to help her husband stop smoking proved futile. That notwithstanding, he was a man that loved his family. Years had come and gone, but the man was still at it. Then one day, he saw a program on TV, where the devastating effects of second hand smoking was being discussed. Then it dawned on him, the dangers he had been exposing his family to, especially his wife, as they inhaled the smoke of tobacco, to which they were exposed when he smoked at home. There and then, the long standing appetite for smoking died a natural death. His love for his family infused him with seemingly invincible powers to give up his smoking habit and strangulated his appetite for tobacco. It must have cost him a lot to deal with, but for the love he had for his family, it was not a struggle. He gave it up freely. His family entered into another level of bliss and joy that perhaps they had never known.

You can’t love without giving. The reason why many struggle with giving is because of their lack of love. In fact, the extent to which you are not giving is the extent to which you are love deficient. This is how Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it, "Perhaps the greatest gift is a portion of thyself."

 

The Fourth Rule Of Giving

Wisdom Nugget: "He who observes the wind and waits for all conditions to be favourable will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap."

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"The smallest gift is greater that the greatest intention."

A church member was expecting $300,000 in a will from a family member. The member said to the pastor, "If I get the $300,000 I will give one-third to the church." The pastor said, "How will you give one-third of this amount when you can't give one-tenth of what you now earn?"

It's not what we would do if we had much money—it's what we are doing with what we have now!

The fourth Rule of Giving is "Eliminate all excuses !" Our nugget below captures it succinctly:
"He that observes the wind shall not sow; and he that regards the clouds shall not reap.

When it comes to doing the right thing, have you noticed how your mind is bombarded with a million and one excuses why you shouldn't? You hear things like: have you paid your bills? what if have an emergency & may need the money? What if you loose your job etc ? Truth is the weather will never be perfect for you to do what is right. Excuses are tools of the incompetent, monuments of nothingness and those who use them are not wise.

A minister was talking to a man who professed conversion. "Have you united with a church?" he asked him. "No, the dying thief never united with a church and he went to heaven," was the answer. "Have you ever sat at the Lord's table?" "No, the dying thief never did and he was accepted." "Have you been baptized?" "No, the dying thief was never baptized and he went to heaven." "Have you given to missions?" "No, the dying thief did not, and he was not judged for it." "Well, my friend, the difference between you two seems to be that he was a dying thief and you are a living thief."

WHOSE CALF IS DEAD?

WISDOM NUGGETS: "We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers."

                                                                                                           - Seneca

Simple Gift
Source: Photopin

 

 

 Whenever there is an opportunity to give, it has everything to do with us, we are the chief beneficiaries of our giving. Isn't it interesting then how people withhold from giving?

 

A preacher once told a story that perfectly illustrates this point.

 

One day a farmer went happily and with great joy in his heart to report to his wife and family that their best cow had given birth to twin calves, one red and one white. And he said, “You know I have suddenly had a feeling that we must dedicate one of these calves to the Lord. We will bring them up together, and when the time comes we will sell one and keep the proceeds, and we will sell the other and give the proceeds to the Lord’s work.” His wife asked him which he was going to dedicate to the Lord. “There is no need to bother about that now,” he replied, “we will treat them both in the same way, and when the time comes we will do as I have said.” And off he went. In a few months the man entered his kitchen looking very miserable and unhappy. When his wife asked him what was troubling him, he answered, “I have bad news to give you. The Lord’s calf is dead.” “But,” she said, “You had not decided which was to be the Lord’s calf.” “Oh yes,” he said; “I had always decided it was to be the white one, and it is the white one that has died. The Lord’s calf is dead.”

 

We may laugh at that story, but we may simply be laughing at ourselves. How many times has the Lord's calf died in your possession? When money becomes difficult, the first thing we economize or eliminate is our contribution to charity.

 

As Audrey once said, "You will discover that you have two hands. One is for helping yourself and the other is for helping others."

 

“What is it a man has”, Jesus asked, “that he did not receive?” Why then do men struggle with letting go of just a portion of all that they have been blessed with?

 

Remember Seneca's words: "We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers."

 

"I" Is For Investment: Friendships Require Investments

Wisdom Nugget: Remember when you "Give to others, and you will receive. You will be given much. It will be poured into your hands - more than you can hold. You will be given so much that it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way you will be given."

Source: Photo Pin

To invest is to "Devote (one's time, effort, or energy) to a particular undertaking with the expectation of a worthwhile result."

Lesson 1: Friendship costs "time, effort, and energy" and if you are not willing to sacrifice these then you are not ready to build serious friendship. Investment also speaks of money put into a venture for profit. So straightaway lets settle this: friendship is like a bank account: you cannot pull out more than you are willing to invest or pay in. And every time you draw more than you deposit into it, your friendship account goes into red and the relationship suffers.

Lesson 2: Friendship is like a Football Game. Every time your friend scores a goal (of kindness) do not rest until you have equalized. You may not be able to do exactly what they did for you because you are not at the same financial level, but just score a goal nevertheless. It's not the size of the act but the size of the heart that matters. Some friends are like goal keepers, they never score any goals (of kindness), they only catch the balls (of kindness) played by others and anytime you stay only at the receiving end of any relationship, soon the other party becomes weary of giving all the time and begins to look for a way out. If I may ask, "what is the latest score between you and your friends lately?" If all you have been doing is conceding goals then its time to equalize. Don't be a looser !
Lesson 3: Every investment must have a "Worthwhile Result" or "Profit." One of the wisdom of life says "In all labour ,there is profit", and that profit must not be money only. It could be mentorship, character, manners, wisdom, encouragement, knowledge etc. but Profit you must get. Any friendship that adds nothing to you is killing you slowly.

However before you look for the profit in the relationship ask yourself, "how much have I invested in it?"

Once upon a time there was a king who lived in a beautiful kingdom. He was happy and so were his people. They worked together to improve the kingdom and brought the king many gifts. The king, in turn, was generous to his people. People all over the world heard of this kingdom and came to visit. They admired the beautiful kingdom and they marvelled at how happy everyone seemed to be. The kingdom grew and prospered. But then something happened. The king grew selfish and wanted more and more. He grew self-indulgent and demanded that the people bring him more and more food and more and more of the good things of life. The king's selfishness made him rich and fat, but the people became poor and miserable. One by one the people left the kingdom, and the kingdom that had been so beautiful and so happy began to fall apart. The king found himself alone in his castle, surrounded by mountains of food and all of the luxuries of life, but outside the kingdom had crumbled and the people had all slipped away. The king who had it all became selfish and wanted to keep it all, but he ended up losing it all.