Generosity In Faith

vs. stinginess

Managing resources to freely give

To practice Generosity, I will:

• share what I have with others
• reuse and recycle
• give of my time and talents
• praise the qualities I see in others
• not expect anything in return

Generosity is More than Givng Money
By Rev. Dr. Roger Braun, Retired Methodist Minister, guest columnist

At the recent Heroes of Character Celebration for the Character Council of Cincinnati, one of the Heroes was Amanda Johnson. She is quoted for saying, “Giving is my love language.” Beautiful words to live by. This is the character of generosity that can be at the center of everything we do to bring goodness into this world.

In Chapter 19 in the Book of Genesis, we read about a very evil city named Sodom. The city was so corrupt that it was destroyed by an earthquake because of its evil. The Book of Genesis does not really say what specific evil it was that the people were engaged in. It is not until many centuries later that a prophet by the name of Ezekiel finally tells us. He wrote in the Book of Ezekiel 16:49: “This was the evil of Sodom; arrogance, overfed, unconcerned and refusing to help the poor and needy.” The real evil was a city of people who had lots of prosperity and refused to be generous with their wealth.

One can tell a great deal about the character of a person by the amount of generosity they show. However, keep this in mind, that generosity is not just about how much money a person gives. Generosity is also the giving of time, love, labor, listening, compassion, empathy, understanding, and tolerance, to name just a few elements of generosity. Generosity is a total way to address your world. Live your life as a generous life, and your true character will shine through. Generosity will be my love language.