Since I don’t have any grandkids yet, I have decided to bless the kids of the families in my small group and my co-workers’ kids. I have started with birthday gifts, but would also like to start doing activities with them.
A few months ago I was deeply impacted by the generosity of 2 couples at my church who are good friends. My car broke down twice in 2 weeks. Both times it had to go to the dealer to be fixed. These couples both had an extra vehicle that they loaned me so I didn’t have to give up my schedule during the days I was without a car. I was blown away by their generosity (especially as someone who will not let anyone else drive her car 😂).
My love language is gifts so I like to give them. I started making sourdough now that I am semi-retired. I give much away. I gave some chocolate chip cookies to some coworkers for admin. Assistant Day and one asked me, what’s this for? My neighbors have 9 kids and they get a lot of my extra baking.
I love that you had Jon on to talk about generosity! I learned about him through your show years ago, and your generosity in sharing the mic with him led to God speaking to me through a lot of Jon’s work. I’m even in Jon’s Remarkable You community now, and it’s amazing. So, thank you, Annie!
I had the opportunity to be generous with my time today and commit to cover a class for another teacher later this week. I struggle to be generous with time in this busy season of life, but I knew after listening to the episode this week, I was meant to cover the class.
Something simple I like to do, is cover a co-worker’s extra duty. Now I’m an educator and we have car rider duty that we take turns with. With someone needs to be off, I like to be one of the first to cover. I think it’s a simple way to be generous.
When I was younger, I would cover shifts in a restaurant also. One time, when I couldn’t find someone to cover for me, a girl mentioned “You need to offer them money to take it.” I was so baffled that I would be loosing money to give them a shift to earn money?! I never accepted for covering a shift, but looked forward to accepting it to help people out in various ways.
As a single girl, I often save half (or more) of a recipe and then take it as dinner to one of the seniors at church. Or I keep it in the freezer and pull it out to deliver to someone who’s going through a rough moment.
Also, when I see grocery sales, I buy extra pantry items, paper goods, or hygiene items to donate to the local outreach ministry. It doesn’t cost much to add another “2 for $___” to my cart. Or I’ll snag a deal on Amazon and have it delivered directly to the organization. I know they’ll be needed for someone.
I keep grocery store gift cards in my wallet. When someone tells me about a person going through a difficult situation, I give them the card and ask them to give it to the person in need. Or, ask them for that address and send it to the person, along with an uplifting note.
I read a quote one time-“Seek to be the most generous person in the room. The world doesn’t need your smarts, agility, or riches. She has all the smarts, agility, and riches she needs. She needs someone to give it away to the world.” This has really resonated with me.
My husband and I have a single friend we have over for dinner once a month. She works in a ministry job so spends her time pouring out a lot to others. We have told her this time and space is her’s. She gets to decide what we do or talk about based on what she needs that month. Some times it’s deep conversation where she gets to share where she is struggling that month, some times it is light-hearted conversation, some times we play a game together, some times we are praying over each other. My husband and I have no agenda set for this time except that we prepare a meal (free to her), have her favorite drink on hand, and creating the space for her to breathe and be poured into however she needs!
I find that sometimes it's most important to be generous when I feel least equipped. One time when I felt especially broke, I had a prompting to give money to someone I knew could use it. I felt that God was telling me that she needed money and I needed faith. I'm still here and all my bills are paid, so I guess God had enough for both of us ;)
The Lord showed me several years ago that I was holding on too tightly to a number in my bank account and that security in that number was causing me to be self-sufficient rather than trusting in His faithfulness. When He shows me that I am leaning on that number rather than Him I listen for an amount and a person and give some away. It is amazing how quickly my grip loosens on that security when I am obedient and hand it over. It wasn’t an easy lesson the first time and isn’t always easy to obey now but it is always fruitful and always points me back to His faithfulness.
I love this topic! There are so many ways and examples. One that comes immediately to mind centers on a friend of mine who is an empty nester. When my babies were born, she offered to stay the night and help with feedings. (At first I was not planning to take her up on it then I did.) She’s stayed over three times. Not only does she help with the babies, she brings her presence and adult conversations too. My dad was very generous. At his funeral, I had all kinds of people come up to me and tell me things he had done from selling a younger couple they mentored their car for $1 to babysitting their friends’ twins (my sister and I are twins so they had experience) for several weekends to writing weekly to a friend who ended up in jail. He earmarked portions of bonuses to help other people out.
Since I don’t have any grandkids yet, I have decided to bless the kids of the families in my small group and my co-workers’ kids. I have started with birthday gifts, but would also like to start doing activities with them.
A few months ago I was deeply impacted by the generosity of 2 couples at my church who are good friends. My car broke down twice in 2 weeks. Both times it had to go to the dealer to be fixed. These couples both had an extra vehicle that they loaned me so I didn’t have to give up my schedule during the days I was without a car. I was blown away by their generosity (especially as someone who will not let anyone else drive her car 😂).
My love language is gifts so I like to give them. I started making sourdough now that I am semi-retired. I give much away. I gave some chocolate chip cookies to some coworkers for admin. Assistant Day and one asked me, what’s this for? My neighbors have 9 kids and they get a lot of my extra baking.
I love that you had Jon on to talk about generosity! I learned about him through your show years ago, and your generosity in sharing the mic with him led to God speaking to me through a lot of Jon’s work. I’m even in Jon’s Remarkable You community now, and it’s amazing. So, thank you, Annie!
I had the opportunity to be generous with my time today and commit to cover a class for another teacher later this week. I struggle to be generous with time in this busy season of life, but I knew after listening to the episode this week, I was meant to cover the class.
Something simple I like to do, is cover a co-worker’s extra duty. Now I’m an educator and we have car rider duty that we take turns with. With someone needs to be off, I like to be one of the first to cover. I think it’s a simple way to be generous.
When I was younger, I would cover shifts in a restaurant also. One time, when I couldn’t find someone to cover for me, a girl mentioned “You need to offer them money to take it.” I was so baffled that I would be loosing money to give them a shift to earn money?! I never accepted for covering a shift, but looked forward to accepting it to help people out in various ways.
As a single girl, I often save half (or more) of a recipe and then take it as dinner to one of the seniors at church. Or I keep it in the freezer and pull it out to deliver to someone who’s going through a rough moment.
Also, when I see grocery sales, I buy extra pantry items, paper goods, or hygiene items to donate to the local outreach ministry. It doesn’t cost much to add another “2 for $___” to my cart. Or I’ll snag a deal on Amazon and have it delivered directly to the organization. I know they’ll be needed for someone.
I love this idea with the grocery sales- I never thought of that before!
I keep grocery store gift cards in my wallet. When someone tells me about a person going through a difficult situation, I give them the card and ask them to give it to the person in need. Or, ask them for that address and send it to the person, along with an uplifting note.
I read a quote one time-“Seek to be the most generous person in the room. The world doesn’t need your smarts, agility, or riches. She has all the smarts, agility, and riches she needs. She needs someone to give it away to the world.” This has really resonated with me.
This is beautiful. 🩷How about Caring for a child with a disability bc you know family needs it
Thanks great idea
My husband and I have a single friend we have over for dinner once a month. She works in a ministry job so spends her time pouring out a lot to others. We have told her this time and space is her’s. She gets to decide what we do or talk about based on what she needs that month. Some times it’s deep conversation where she gets to share where she is struggling that month, some times it is light-hearted conversation, some times we play a game together, some times we are praying over each other. My husband and I have no agenda set for this time except that we prepare a meal (free to her), have her favorite drink on hand, and creating the space for her to breathe and be poured into however she needs!
I LOVE this. As a single woman, this would mean so much to me. Well done.
I find that sometimes it's most important to be generous when I feel least equipped. One time when I felt especially broke, I had a prompting to give money to someone I knew could use it. I felt that God was telling me that she needed money and I needed faith. I'm still here and all my bills are paid, so I guess God had enough for both of us ;)
The Lord showed me several years ago that I was holding on too tightly to a number in my bank account and that security in that number was causing me to be self-sufficient rather than trusting in His faithfulness. When He shows me that I am leaning on that number rather than Him I listen for an amount and a person and give some away. It is amazing how quickly my grip loosens on that security when I am obedient and hand it over. It wasn’t an easy lesson the first time and isn’t always easy to obey now but it is always fruitful and always points me back to His faithfulness.
I love this topic! There are so many ways and examples. One that comes immediately to mind centers on a friend of mine who is an empty nester. When my babies were born, she offered to stay the night and help with feedings. (At first I was not planning to take her up on it then I did.) She’s stayed over three times. Not only does she help with the babies, she brings her presence and adult conversations too. My dad was very generous. At his funeral, I had all kinds of people come up to me and tell me things he had done from selling a younger couple they mentored their car for $1 to babysitting their friends’ twins (my sister and I are twins so they had experience) for several weekends to writing weekly to a friend who ended up in jail. He earmarked portions of bonuses to help other people out.