Giving and Receiving

  Giving And Receiving-Here it is. Christmas again. A time for giving and
receiving. Of course, the greatest gift of all was God sending Jesus into
the world at Christmas. But that started me thinking, "Just what do I have
to give-right now! My present, day-to-day life seems to be pretty trivial. "

The most obvious way I  have of giving is money. Because, thankfully, my
finances are in a "stable" condition, I always have something to give
whenever the church is collecting money for something. And there are often
other opportunities to donate money.

However, life is more than money, though I am sure that  there are people in
this world who would disagree. We often hear about giving time. I do have
plenty of time to give to God but giving time to other people is more of a
challenge for me. I can't go anywhere without help and, once I am there, I
can't do anything for anybody. I can't even speak words of encouragement. As
I was writing this, the thought came to me that one way I give time to
people is when I write e-mails. They take so long for me to write that it is
definitely giving up time I could be using for other things. On the other
hand, I really enjoy writing e-mails as it is a way to communicate

These blogs are a way of giving to other people. Both in time because they
take a long time for me to write but also in content. Hopefully, I am saying
something that will encourage others and, by letting people see so much into
my life, I a giving to others.

Finally, I know I can give to others by smiling when I don't feel like it. I
can be happy when I don't feel happy. I can praise God when I don't feel
like praising God. In other words, I give to others everytime I don't let my
negative emotions control my actions. I haven't mastered this yet but God
and I are working on it.

But giving is only one side of the equation. There is also the receiving
part. Even though God gave the world the greatest gift of all in sending
Jesus, it is a useless gift if it is not received. That is the people part
of the deal.

I suspect that I am a better giver than receiver. For two reasons. First, I
don't need anything. At least, not that people can give. The second is a
character flaw that God and I need to work on. I think I feel more in
control of the situation when I give than when I receive. But He has dealt
with
me in the area of receiving and I am starting to understand that we bless
people just as much when we graciously receive what people want to give us
as when we give to others.

One area of receiving that I have never had much choice in is that of
receiving help. When you have to depend on other people for absolutely
everything, it is quite a blow to the independent pride. I am used to it by
now but, at first, it was a pretty humbling experience.

When we hear the word "receiving", we usually think of gifts or money. But
there are other things to receive as well. Things like help, time and
compliments. Quite a few years ago, the Lord showed me just to accept what
they are giving, say "thank you" and not to argue about it.

So, at Christmas, let’s be good givers. But let’s also be good receivers.
Provided, of course, the receiving doesn’t turn into greed.