Hello, dear one!
Perhaps like me, you were taught at a very young age the virtues of giving to the need. But there were times when you were pressured to give.
You gave because everyone sitting around you, working with you, or living next to you expected you to give, so the giving from you felt like a perfunctory routine and obligation. This is considered outward in giving, under social pressure.
You may also recall the times when you volunteered to give in a flow state. Your heart felt so right and expanded with the giving. No matter how small it was, it felt good, right?
That is the inward-out giving, centering from your heart to express the God within you.
When giving is aligned with the higher power, it touches hearts.
This picture went viral on social media days after the violence occurred in Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. An 18-year-old gunman shot and killed 19 students and two teachers on May 24, 2022.
From Saegert Elementary School in Texas, a parent took and posted this picture, and acknowledged this man’s God-flowing giving:
After she dropped off her daughter at school in the morning, she noticed the man was standing there. She thought he might be waiting for a ride somewhere.
In the afternoon when she returned to pick up her daughter, this man was still there.
Out of curiosity, she called the school and asked why the man was standing there all day. The reply surprised her: He volunteered to stand and watch over the children.
His selfless love for all the school children brought tremendous gratitude to this parent’s heart. His protection also helped ease the hearts and minds of the other parents.
The parent who posted the picture honored the moment, “I wanted to shake his hand but I didn’t want to interrupt as he was doing a job. He needs to be recognized because this is amazing.”
We cannot bring back the lost lives, but we can comfort each other by giving the God within us, being a source for each other.
When you give inward-out, your well will never be depleted, for God who sees in secret will reward you (Matthew 6:6).
One of the world’s most revered philosophers and writers, Gibran Khalil Gibran, implied the right way to give in his classic work, The Prophet:
“You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give…
There are those who give little of the much which they have – and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome…
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these god speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.”
God’s rewards often come to the most innocent givers.
Decades ago in Philadelphia, a couple had trouble finding a hotel room for the night. They came to a small hotel hoping for luck.
The hotel was also full, but the hotel manager didn’t give up to help them. He gave his room to the couple for the night.
The manager didn’t know that this couple wasn’t just any couple. They were Mr. and Mrs. William Waldorf Astor.
Some years later when the Waldorf Astoria Hotel was completed in New York City, Mr. Astor insisted on hiring that manager from the small Philadelphia hotel.
This manager, George C. Boldt, later became the greatest hotel expert of the times. His fortune all began with a small act of giving, from his heart.
The next time before you give, ask yourself, ” Do I really want to give my time, my energy, my skills, my labor, or my money?”
If it’s another obligation and it’s not from your heart, say NO.
When you give in the right way, you’ll be in a state of effortless flow like the hotel manager, letting God be God in you. That’s how the magic shows up when you’re least expecting it.
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