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Giving and Receiving
It is indeed more blessed to
give than to receive, someone commented during the past Christmas holiday,
especially when it comes to fruitcake. I can remember as a child counting
the presents under the tree to see how my haul compared to that of my
brother and sisters. The intervening years have taught me a few things. I
am still enjoying the memory of giving a gift to my son-in-law at
Christmas. He is British and a student of the Battle of Britain, so I was
especially delighted last summer to find a video about the Spitfire, a
British fighter plane crucial in the defense of that island nation during
WWII. It was a used video and only cost a few dollars, but I had many
months of delightful anticipation of his receiving it, and the added
pleasure of watching it together. He knew it was special because I thought
enough of him to be watching for something of real interest to him. While
you may have equal pleasure in giving and receiving a gift after the fact,
unless you know what you are going to receive, it is hard to match the
anticipation of giving with the anticipation of receiving. Another good
reason to do your Christmas shopping early!
The business application
The importance of having a giving attitude intersects strongly with your
business. I'm sure you have encountered a hard, grasping attitude across
the counter in a retail store more than once. A similar attitude in an
online business owner comes across more subtly but with no less reality.
In a variety of ways, your core priority of giving or getting is conveyed
to your customers, by the tone of your communications to the type of
bonuses you may offer. Of course few of us are in business without the
need to make a profit, yet we - perhaps unknowingly - get our greatest
satisfaction either in pleasing the customer or just making the sale. I
would submit that the former attitude will both carry you further in
business and make the journey more pleasant.
An attitude of the heart
It is difficult to simply wake up one day and say "I'm going to be a
loving, giving person from now on," a truth Lucy often demonstrates in the
Peanuts cartoon. Basic attitudes come from within, molded by years of
circumstances and our reactions to them. You may have grown up in an
atmosphere where giving was a priority, and thus have that natural bent.
But for all of us, the Bible says there is an inherited flaw of the heart,
a 'sin gene' so to speak. Only a 'heart transplant' can change us at the
core of our being, so that we become givers by nature instead of just
givers by force of example.
A more basic question
We ultimately have a more basic
question to answer than whether we received more satisfaction from giving
than receiving. We are ultimately answerable to God as to what we did with
His most precious and indescribable gift - the gift of His Son and the
eternal life He brings. When we
agree with God about our need for eternal life through Jesus Christ, He
gives us a new heart and begins to remold our motives and basic attitudes.
He is unalterably determined to make His children reflect His loving,
giving heart in all our relationships. Become a giver from the heart - a
new heart implanted by God Himself!
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