A Spirit of Generosity

It was a good Thanksgiving, with the house filled with grandchildren, kids and in-laws last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Our oldest son and his family did not come (Matt was working), but the rest were here and "our cup ran over" with good fellowship, food, football, cribbage and card games, and even a bit of shopping.  We are blessed.

We celebrated Christmas on Friday and one of the gifts we received was a new microwave!  Our microwave was not that old, but we had purchased it at a Habitat for Humanity store and it was not long before a problem revealed itself.  We could not have it on for more than 4 minutes or it shut down.  The core element would get so hot, the automatic shut down would occur to prevent a fire. It would take around 45 minutes before it would cool down enough to restore itself. We learned not to cook anything over 4 minutes, so if we needed to warm up food, it had to be under 4 minutes total.  It mean lukewarm or 75% cooked food at times.  No biggy.  We are adaptable!  It shut down when the kids were home, and Joel put two ice packs inside to help it cool off like he always does. We explained what was happening and ended up warming up food in the oven and on the stove top.  Where there is a will, there is a way. We were used to it's quirkiness and planned to replace in the future, but it freaked out our oldest daughter ~ she was worried about a fire starting.

So, surprise!   We have a new microwave!  We can steam our bags of veggies the full amount of time so they are not so crunchy.  Ha.... And we can do a full bag of popcorn, or warm two bowls of soup.  Oh, yeah, we are feeling pretty happy with our new appliance right about now!  And very thankful that our son-in-laws went out on black Friday and bought us a microwave and spent an afternoon installing it with Joel!  We are blessed by their generous spirits.

Generosity.  The Bible tells us it is rewarded.  We don't give so that we will receive, but God does bless those who give out of the goodness of their heart.  I think about what Rick Warren, "The Purpose Driven Life" author and pastor says about giving.  "You cannot out give God!"  Rick and his wife Kay given away 90 percent of their income.  ALL the money, millions, that came in from his well known book was given away.  Pastor Warren says, "No matter how much we give, God blesses us with more.  You cannot out give God."

We are blessed to have a family that understands this concept.  Over the years we have been on the receiving end of their generosity, and many others have also been blessed by their spirits of generosity.  I think they have learned the secret of giving.  Giving blesses the giver and the receiver.  Our money, our time, our stuff......all temporary and ALL from God.  We steward what God has given us.  We don't "own it", we manage it for God as His stewards.

Thanksgiving is a great time to contemplate and activate a spirit of generosity.  We give thanks for the abundance we are surrounded with, and we give to others out of the abundance we have been given.  In it all, we are blessed.