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."

Source: Photo Pin

"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."

Giving Is Loving

PHOTOPIN: Giving

“It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
                                                                                                 ―     Mother Teresa

 

A man prayed fervently every morning, during his family’s worship, for the poor in the community, but he was never known to give anything to the poor. One morning at the conclusion of family worship, after the usual prayer had been offered for the poor and destitute, his little son said, "Father, I wish I had your corncrib." "Why, my son?" asked the father. "Why, because then I would answer your prayers for the poor myself."

It'd be nice to imitate the barber who one week noticed that there was a good increase in his business. And discovered that his competitor, another barber in the village, was ill. When the week ended, he took all that he had made above his average earnings and carried it to his competitor with love and sympathy.

True love is showing our neighbours support and kindness. We cannot claim to love God if we do otherwise.