Giving

Today in church we talked about a verse:
2 Corinthians 9:7

...let him give not grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.

and then later something along the lines of:

"If you give a gift grudgingly, it is almost like you kept the gift to yourself." 

was mentioned

Now that we've reached the month of December...the month of giving....
I had to stop and think.

I enjoy giving gifts, I always find it fun :) especially when the person receiving the gift wasn't expecting anything. :) lol. Of course....I usually hope that I get something back, but I don't really expect it.
I find it fun to give...
lol....and yes I admit that I'd love for people to give to me as well ;) haha.
But giving, its fun. :)
Yet....what happens when you don't give a gift because you want to?
When you give one because you were told to?
Or one where you gave it...even if you didn't want to, when you were doing it as an obligation...

I guess it makes sense that you "Might as well have kept the gift"
If you give it under duress.

I guess its the famous "party-pooper" ideology where if you're not careful and you're a 'downer' you can make it harder for everyone else to stay cheerful.

Why give then?
If you get nothing in return....why give?
In the Christmas devotional given tonight;
one of the presidency mentioned giving gifts.....
feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving shelter to the homeless....
or giving a thoughtful gift...
when we give to others
its like we're giving to Christ.
Helping those in need, we give a gift of service to Christ.
Or just by giving we show the 'love of christ'
something like that.

I personally like giving for the 'warm fuzzy feeling' because I can and I want to lol :)

the key though...is wanting to give.
If we give under 'duress'
Its not much of a gift at all....just a trinket given because you feel obligated to give back.

Give in the spirit of giving :) lol its more fun and heart warming that way :)

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi