We All Know the Verse! God Loves a Cheerful Giver Everyone will recognize the way you feel when you are giving a gift to a loved one. Some contemporary writers even go so far as to say we are at our best then. Being the gift-giver and helping others are similar – they bring out the best in us. I am one of those who is much more at ease in giving than receiving. Therefore, I have a bias in how I go about life – my receptors are on the look out for ways I can help – ways I can make it easier for someone else. In this state, it is easy to overlook how giving to the Church fits in. Giving to the Church is what keeps me from being self-absorbed, from being turned in on myself. When I give of myself in such a way that it means less for me, I am actually doing myself a spiritual favor. I am making a decision that the world is not about me – it is about others too. There is still that feeling that I am being who God made me to be when I am giving. I have discovered that I often give most when I am most grateful – when I realize everything, yes everything, even life itself is a gift from God. This gratitude is the beginning of offering to God’s work my money, my time, and my abilities.Fr. Brian and I had a seminary professor whose challenge still affects me, “what can you stand before God with at the end of life and say to God, This is mine!? Thanks for all you give of yourselves! Kerry |