Random Thoughts - Generosity, Judging, Guilt

Are we generous people? I am not talking about random acts of giving (Salvation Army Christmas Kettle) or giving when you are motivated by someone or a particular cause. That is okay, but I am talking about having a generous heart.

Truly generous people do not give out of guilt.

If you do not give because you are afraid you will need it later you are not a generous giver.

Generosity is not a natural trait. It has to be learned. Children have to be taught to share.

Giving is a cultural thing in the United States because of Christianity.

Generous people are not emotional givers. They plan ahead how much they can give and who they will give it to.

Generous people do not give based on present cash flow.

Generous giving is not about how much you give. I use to get upset when people would talk about how generous Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey are. She has four or five mansions and he has a trust fund setup for his kid worth millions of dollars. What do you have? You may be more generous than either of them.

Generosity is not how many zeroes are at the end of your check it is about sacrifice and giving from the heart. It is not giving for a tax deduction. It is not giving for publicity.

I will give one example to demonstrate generosity. I once new an elderly lady we called Ms Honey. She gave $20 every week to help with our food ministry. She lived on a fixed government check. That $20 would be more generous than what Bill Gates or Ms Winfrey gives.

Truly happy people are generous givers. It is true more joy comes from giving than receiving. Try it and see.
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Have you ever thought "Thank God I am not like them". If you have (and I have) you are a hypocrite. A "holier than them" attitude is not what Christians are suppose to have.

Judging others pushes people away from Christ not to Christ. As Christians we are called to not be self righteous. We condemn ourselves when we judge others.

We should put away our magnifying glass when looking at others.

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We only feel guilty when we care. If we do not care about others we do not feel guilty.

Remember we are not what we did. We have all done things we regretted. But that does not mean we are a bad person.

If we want to stop feeling guilty we have to own what we did (admit it) and stop making excuses for doing it.

Sometimes to fix our wrong all we need do is say "I am sorry".

Our future is not necessarily limited by our past mistakes.

Sometimes we stay angry far too long because of our pride. We need to humble our self and say these three words "I am sorry" and most of the time the anger will leave.