I am overwhelmed with how beautifully supportive everyone has been about our House Hunters episode!  Thank you all for watching!!!

The last couple of weeks we’ve had a mini-series at church on generosity; it has been so good.  The whole idea of generosity is nothing new to this lifelong church going girl, but it’s never a bad idea to be reminded not only TO give but WHY we give.  I think I always felt like I should give because the Bible says so, and that’s true.  But, there’s more to it. Now, I don’t buy into the whole idea of giving to get more, but I do believe the Lord blesses and “watches over” the finances (and other aspects of life) of those who do their best to be faithful.  I’ve lived that.  It doesn’t mean hard times won’t come, but when they do, I trust God is up to something, even if it scares me. 

A few years ago, in the middle of the pandemic, we honestly thought Jeff (my husband), like many others, was going to lose his job.   As a matter of fact, we had been given a date when he was going to be “laid off.”  The date was set for January and I remember so clearly looking at our finances, wondering if I should donate to the church as normal, or save the money because we might need it to pay bills later.  Many of you have probably had to make similar choices at some point in your life.  As I worry-prayed about it, I felt a strong impression…

“Sandi, do you trust me?”

Wow.  At that particular time the question was a hard one.  “Yes, Lord, I trust you, Lord.’  I responded kind of sheepishly, but I also knew what I had to do.  It’s not difficult to SAY you trust when life is stable; it’s when you’re staring at finances that don’t make sense that trust becomes more than a sentiment, it becomes faith.

So, we gave.

And when I learned about a month later that we weren’t going to be laid off after all, I cried.  I cried not just out of relief but from a place of hope fulfilled.  God had proven himself and I was awestruck.   We’ve had financial highs and lows throughout our marriage but I can’t remember a time when it was clearer to me that I was supposed to give even when I couldn’t see how we would make it. 

As we have studied generosity these past couple of weeks, I’ve begun to realize that generosity applies to many other areas of our life as well.  The area that comes to mind immediately is forgiveness.  I feel like the Lord has been saying to me lately, “be generous with your forgiveness, Sandi.”   Again, it’s easy to say I forgive, but it’s tougher when I’ve been hurt and I have to do the work of forgiving someone.

This week, amidst the outpouring of support shown to us, a comment was published on the House Hunters page.  Apparently someone watched it and didn’t like me or my gray hair.  She went on to make a rude comment and published it for any and every one to see.   When I first saw it, I have to admit, it stung.  “Woe,” I thought, “that is really mean.”  And it was.  I immediately started defending myself in my mind and even told a few friends about it.  But, it didn’t take long before the Lord got into my head, “forgive her, Sandi.”  Ugh!  I didn’t want to, I wanted to lament and be outraged.   But, instead, I decided to listen to the Lord.  I’m not sure I would’ve done this if I hadn’t been learning more about generosity.  I heard a quote lately that I can’t forget, “there is never an excuse, but there may be a reason.”  She shouldn’t have done it, but who knows what’s going on in her heart that made her want to?  No excuse, but maybe her reason is her own deep unhappiness. Maybe?  Or maybe she’s just mean.  Either way, I don’t want to carry it around, so I prayed for her.  I’ll leave her in God’s hands, he’ll do what’s best for both of us.

Generosity is complicated sometimes, or maybe it’s not so complicated but just hard.  Is it generous when it doesn’t cost us anything?   Giving when it’s easy is good, but giving (whether tangible or not) when it’s not easy is generous.  The dictionary says “giving more of something than is strictly necessary or expected is generous.”  Going above and beyond, even when it doesn’t make sense, then trusting God do what he promised, that’s generous living.

Proverbs 22:9a “The generous will themselves be blessed”

That’s the best life.

Is there an area in your life where God is asking you to be more generous?

It can be so hard to trust when you don’t see how it’s going to work out or when it hurts your feelings.  But, I am here to tell you that you can trust him.  It probably won’t be easy, but it is totally worth it.

Generous living is the best way.