December 18, 2013

A week until Christmas – a time to experience the joy of giving.

In Acts 20:35 Paul quotes Jesus as saying “It is more blessed to give

than receive.”

Some question whether Jesus actually said that, but his teachings

certainly reflected this great truth and it is a wonderful Christmas tradition –

giving gifts to others.

Unfortunately many never experience the joy of giving – Christmas or

anytime. Bah humbug they often say. This is a sad way to exist.

As I Goggled the joy of giving I ran across two things I’ll share.

The first from Steve Maraboli is profound. He said:

Give yourself entirely to those around you. Be generous with your

blessings. A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can

Wow! Let me repeat that.

A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal.

Those are words we can learn from.

The second is a powerful short story entitled the Joy of Giving.

A woman who was traveling alone in the mountains found a precious stone

in a stream.

The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, the woman opened

her bag to share her food.

The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it

to him. She did so without hesitation.

The traveler left, rejoicing in his great fortune. He knew the stone was worth

enough to give him security for a lifetime.

But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the woman.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said, “I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it

back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give

me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.”

The woman smiled, “The joy of giving!” Author: Unknown

Give someone a gift they are not expecting and your joy will be

amazing. That’s a promise!

Merry Christmas, I’m Steve Sauder