Being generous speaks to my soul. While I will be the first to admit to you that I’m a very selfish person — I love being generous. I love giving. I love being kind. I love making others happy. When thinking about what direction to take this post, I, of course, googled the word “generosity” to see what came up. The first website that popped up under the definition was the wikipedia page, and the first sentence was, “Generosity is the habit of giving without expecting anything in return.” And that struck me. First of all, it says it is a habit. And what is a habit, but something we do regularly. And also, is is something we do without expecting anything in return. And do we do that? Do we give without expecting anything in return? I mean, really? It’s so easy to give a present to your mom or you husband because you know that you’ll receive something. But what if you didn’t? Would you still give? I’d like to think we would, generally, but all have a part of the natural man in us, and it’s not in our nature to be self-less. It takes practice and grace.

One example that popped into my head is that of giving money to the homeless. I will admit, I don’t do this. I am more scared and uncomfortable than I am selfless. I look away, I do anything but look in that direction. But why? …. I am sure I am still figuring that out. Maybe one day I will get over it, and give. I suppose you could call it a goal of mine.

Also, I think we should remember that we do not only need to be generous with our worldly and material means. We should be generous with our time and talents. Make the time to sit with your spouse while they’re having a hard day, make the time to call a friend, make the time to serve.

I hope as we make our way into this busy season of gift-giving and other activities that involve generosity that we will in fact be generous, that we will develop the habit of giving, and not expect any thing in return. Being selfless and generous is an amazing Christlike attribute, and one that, while I feel like I am pretty good at it, I still need to perfect and be better. So here’s to that — striving to be all that we can be. To being generous.