As we end 2010, I thought this story by Catherine Ponder was the most appropriate post to end with. Take this into your soul and process it so that you can practice giving throughout 2011 and beyond. This is a very touching (and true) story.

What Can I Give?

“What could a person give when he seems so in lack?” There is always some” thing a person can give, either tangibly or intangibly, that will put him in touch with God’s rich supply. A widow with a house full of children once telephoned a coun¬selor. She had no money or food for her children. It was lunch time and her chil¬dren had not eaten since the day before.    She was desperate. The counselor know well what it was like to find oneself in such a predicament. The power of prosperous thinking had literally supplied “manna from heaven” at a financially desperate period in her own life.

With great compassion she explained the magic power of giving in some way, which would start the substance flowing back in appropriate form.

Of course, when she explained that the widow must give in order to receive, the widow’s first reaction was much the same that yours or mine might be the first time we were told we must give to receive. We always have something to give.

Indeed, we always have more to give than we at first realize. She urged this frantic widow to look about her and to ask for divine guidance concerning what she could give.

The widow was assured that this counselor would be praying with her in the faith that she would be divinely led as to how to give and how to receive thereafter.

The counselor also told her that, after starting the flow of substance by giving, she was then to get ready to receive by preparing her table for that meal she so wished for her children; and by preparing her grocery list with which to shop, in the assurance that the money would manifest very soon for those groceries.

In faith the widow sat down and prayerfully asked what she had that she could give. Suddenly she remembered flowers growing in her yard, which she happily cut and gave to a sick neighbor who was overjoyed to receive them. Next she set her table with the best china, silver and linens in the house. This caused pleasure and excitement among her children, who expectantly awaited a good meal. Just as she was competing her grocery list someone who had been owing her money for a long time, dropped by and paid her $30 on her debt.

If I could shout only one message to the whole world regarding life’s secrets, it would be this: You cannot get something for nothing, but you can have the best of everything when you give fun measure for the good you wish to receive.

Catherine Ponder

Have a wonderful and safe New Year!

Terrie