Good Morning Friends,
“In everything I did, I showed you that by
this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord
Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35)
There are many teachings of Jesus what are
not recorded for us in the Gospels. In fact, John said at the end of his
Gospel, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written
down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books
that would be written.” (John 21:25)
In Acts 20, Paul quotes one of the teachings
of Jesus that is not found in the Gospels, “It is more blessed to give than to
receive.”
That’s hard for a child to understand. A
child loves to receive. They wait impatiently for Christmas and for their
birthdays because they knew they will receive presents on those occasions. They
love to receive.
But as you age, you come to understand what
Jesus meant. The joy of receiving diminishes and the joy of giving increases. You
begin to anticipate Christmas, not for what you will receive, but to see the
look on the faces of those you love as they open the gift you’ve selected for
them. A look of pleasure and surprise on their faces is worth far more than any
gift you could receive.
The change from the joy of receiving to the
joy of giving is a part of growing up. It’s a part of coming to understand what
is important in life: it’s not the things you accumulate, but the people around
you that make life enjoyable and satisfying.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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