Let Generosity Drive Your Decision-Making

Let Generosity Drive Your Decision-Making -christyfitzwater.com

The fridge in our rental went out, you know, so we walked the aisles in Lowe’s to look at replacements. The property manager made it clear that we only had an obligation, as landlords, to replace the fridge. It didn’t have to be new, and it didn’t have to be fancy.

There were fridges for $500.00, and that was tempting. Those refrigerators were really small, but they would work.

I could hear my dad scowling and saying, “If you’re gonna do somethin’, do it right.” The word right, in his book, meant generous. And behind his generosity was a secret desire to delight people with better than they expected.

Plus I recently had had the opportunity to go be a student for a day, at our new Glacier Bible College, where my husband was professor for the week. The students and I opened up our Bibles to 2 Corinthians, and I wrote in my Growth Book:

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in very way so that you can be generous on every occasion… (2 Corinthians 9:10-11a NIV)

Generous on every occasion. I like that.

This code of conduct came to mind right there in the appliance section of Lowe’s, especially when we were talking about whether to pay the $100 extra to have an ice maker installed. An icemaker isn’t a necessity, and we weren’t going to benefit from it at all, but this was one of those occasions were we could let a spirit of generosity help us make the decision.

An icemaker it was, installed in a good-sized refrigerator.

Don’t you think most of our decisions present the choice of thinking about our own welfare versus considering the welfare of others? Some statistics guy needs to show us a pie chart with these percentages. If that’s true, then adopting generosity as a lifestyle, trusting in God to be our supplier, could significantly cut down our decision-making stress.

I have to add here that I have never regretted making a decision based on generosity instead of my own comfort. The cost to my pockets and time and energy have often been severe, but the kickback of joy has more than compensated for any perceived sacrifice or loss. Doing things right, as my dad would say, is always worth it.

Think of the decisions in front of you right now. What does generosity look like for you?

2 Comments

  1. Generosity is reading this with my oldest boy curled in my lap, up since 4:30. The early morning is the only time I have until bedtime, but he can’t sleep and instead of grumbling, I’m letting him rest in my lap. I don’t regret that one bit.

    1. I think that having kids interrupt my morning quiet time was one of the hardest challenges for me as a mom. I hear you on that one and applaud the quiet gift of love.

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