As the Apostle Paul was addressing the Ephesian elders he reminded them of the words of Jesus in Acts 20:35,

In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Our natural inclination is to think that it is better to receive than to give but Jesus’ statement is true.  I want to tell you about the generosity that was shown to a precious young lady and her five beautiful daughters.  Her husband left this earth to be with Jesus just a few days before Christmas.  The generosity of family,  friends,  church members, neighbors, and people with a heart of love has been amazing.

The week before Christmas the husband went into hospice and as you can imagine his wife was quite busy being at his side and caring for five young children (one who is two months old).   I want to share just one example of love and generosity that encouraged the mom, brought great joy to her little girls, and tears to my eyes.

As you can imagine this was a different Christmas for the family.   A few days after Christmas a friend of the family stopped by and took four of the girls to the American Doll store and let them pick out anything they wanted.  I’ve never been to the American Doll store (thank goodness) but I know this is not your average doll store.  For a  guy this is the equivalent of going into Lowe’s and picking out anything you wanted – that would be awesome!  The picture you see in this blog post is one of the girls with her new doll (and accessories) – doesn’t she look happy!  But I also saw the countenance of the lady who took those girls to the doll store and I could sense the joy in her heart.

Truly it is more blessed to give than to receive.  It is not the person who has much who is rich – the rich person is the one who gives much.  Do you want a blessing in your life?  Be a giver and you will experience joy and be a blessing to someone else.  Who is someone to whom you can show generosity?

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

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