I’ve been preaching for 30 years and have been involved in hurt life for a lot longer than that. One of the things I have noticed through the years is that giving can be a difficult subject with which to deal. Generally, you see two attitudes, one of joy in giving and the other of “Do I really have to?” 

    I read about a little girl that became restless, as the preacher’s sermon seemed (to her young mind) to drag on and on. She finally leaned over to her mother and whispered, “Mommy, if we give him the money now, will he let us go?” Too often that reflects the attitude we exhibit; if not, where would a child learn to think like that? Hopefully that is not your attitude. 

    As I said, one attitude we see exhibited is one of Joy at the ability to give. This past Lord’s Day one of our men (Dennis) was making a short talk before taking the contribution. He said, ‘Too often we try to concentrate at lease once a week on Christ and His life.” His point was that we should move out of the “Once A Week” mode and be thinking about Christ daily. When we begin to do that, we will begin to move into the “giving joyfully” mode. It is impossible to think about someone else giving you a fabulously expensive gift without responding to that with thankfulness 

    I read of another little girl that wanted desperately to give something to Jesus. When the collection was taken that Sunday she had no money to give. Thinking very seriously, she took the special ring from her finger that her favorite aunt had given her. She placed it in the basket with a smile on her face. Her father, who had seen her actions, after services reclaimed the ring and took it back to his daughter with the intention of giving it back to her. He told her, “Honey, we appreciate your putting your ring in the collection plate, but it’s special, and we just want you to keep it.” Her response was, “I didn’t give it to you; I gave it to Jesus.” 

    You see therein is the key to our giving. Too often we think of our giving as “to the church,” “to pay the bills,” or “to pay the preacher,” when in reality our giving is to our God. That is what makes giving special, the fact that it is something we do to honor God, not just to pay the bills. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:7, “You should each give, then, as you have decided, not with regret or out of a sense of duty; for God loves the one who gives gladly.” 

    May our Gracious God grant you the ability to give as a child.. gladly, from the heart, everyday!