Spirit Of Giving

Generosity

Giving and generosity is something that not everyone believes in. Some feel as if it is unnecessary to give and to spend your time and effort on things other than yourself. With everyone stepping into the holiday season. I hope everyone is finding new ways to be generous. Giving may seem pointless, but it is helping someone. We should give knowing someone else will be helped. At times we should set aside our internalized grievances about helping others and just help them. Helping others can be done through many different avenues. We are going to address a few ways we can be more generous. 

Time

When we give our time, it may be the most significant gift we can give. Time is something that we can not get back. It is something that continues to move forward and will never stop for anyone. That is why time is so valuable. If we notice some people are very reluctant to give away their time. That is why you may notice it is hard to find people who are willing to volunteer for a cause. It is hard to volunteer when we may not see a significant outcome right at the moment. Another challenge is that we are not willing to give our time without pay. That is why we should volunteer our time even if it is for an hour, because it is always appreciated. It is because we are willing to make that sacrifice despite knowing that we do not have to donate our time. That is where generosity comes in. We are able to be generous with our time even when it is not necessary for us to do so. 

Tangible Giving

Another aspect of giving I wanted to dive into is the tangible aspect of it. I feel as if many people like to take this route when it comes to giving. This is when we give things such as money and donations. I feel as if this is most common, because many people do not have to sacrifice their time in order to be generous. That is not to say that people aren't being helped, because they are. For my wife, I know that she feels special when I give her a thoughtful gift and when we spend quality time together. These two ways of giving shows me how to be generous and make sacrifices for my wife. When we give tangible items it also forces us to sacrifice a bit of our time as well. Such as if you do an angel tree and you take time out of your day to pick out items that might be of help. This is where we can be generous in multiple avenues. 

Reasons

The primary reason why we should be generous is because we are able to help others around us. When someone receives an unexpected gift they tend to feel important and special. Being a giver shows that we are able to give even when you may not ever see a benefit from it. It is challenging at times to give without a motive, but it is about helping others. When you help someone feel seen that is all that matters. That is the reason why it is important to give even when you may not feel the need to. 

Benefits

Now to the part you all have been waiting for. The benefits of giving. I believe that giving is an act that we should not always expect a thank you in return. Even so, it is nice to receive one. It makes us feel like we matter in this world when we are able to help someone else feel like they matter. At times that is all someone needs in order to move forward. We all want to be seen and noticed. When we give, we are able to show someone that they are not invisible.

Giving is something that we all should do without expecting anything in return. We do so to bring people together and to show those around us that we care. There is a genuineness to generosity. That is why we can identify similarities in the root word of genuine and generosity. Yes, I know that some people give for ulterior motives. I believe that giving is still giving no matter how you may present it. In this holiday season, I do not want us to forget to give.