Giving

We've all heard the saying (it's Biblical!) that giving is better than receiving. And yet on Christmas morning as a kid, it was SO much better to receive! :-)

The other day I had an older gentleman for a patient. I had been warned by the day shift that he was quite the talker, which is pretty amazing considering he had just come out of surgery. Nonetheless, I realized what the day nurse meant as soon as I stepped in the room and introduced myself. He lamented that I hadn't been able to meet his dear wife as she had just left for the night. Then he got this undeniable twinkle in his eye as he said, "you know, I still bring her breakfast in bed every morning that I can!" He went on to say that he never used to buy the saying that giving was better than receiving, but ever since he started to really serve his wife, he had experienced a major change of heart. And this was no cold cereal and fruit. This was poached eggs, bacon, pancakes, smoothies...the whole nine yards. He said that ever since he'd gotten sick, there was now a fun war in their home as to whom could get breakfast for the other first! What a delightful man.

It made me realize that is what I want in life. Not just marriage, though I think service is key to a good and healthy marriage, but also life in general. Today's culture screams out at us that #1 is the most important person in the world: we don't love ourselves enough, we don't take care of ourselves, we're too self-sacrificing. The rate of prescribed anti-depressants has sky-rocketed. I don't just think that it's because it was previously underdiagnosed (though it HAS been underdiagnosed in some circumstances). I personally believe that some of it is because as the attention is turned inward rather than outward, people don't like what they see, but they don't know how to change it other than passing the buck to everyone else for all their problems. However, when we turn our attention outward, focusing on giving to others rather than constantly expecting to be on the receiving end, we find ourselves pleasantly surprised at how happy we become.

"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" - Acts 20:35