The Good Intention Time of Giving

Have you ever had a fantastic idea about how to bless someone?  Maybe it’s through a nice letter or maybe simply a kind word but action on the idea was put off until the idea was forgotten or the opportunity to bless seemed to pass.  I could count for days the number of times I have done this. If only I had acted immediately on those thoughts, I would have blessed so many people.

For the purpose of this entry let’s call this time between a great giving idea and the action to implement the idea as the “Good Intention Time” or the GIT.  

The act of giving to charity very often includes a Good Intention Time.  The process simply lends itself to including times between the knowledge of the need and the actual donation being made.  Technology tends to decrease the opportunity for the GIT to happen. But even with credit card processing and billing right from your smartphone, there still tends to be time between the thought to give and the action of giving.  

As givers, the important thing for us to remember is that the GIT works to keep us from being a blessing to others and from experiencing the blessing to be received from giving.  The Good Intention Time works to delay or more frequently to completely thwart the benefit of charity in a person’s life. If we as givers would work against the GIT or even “git rid” of it, if we would act when that compulsion to give comes on us, we would experience greater opportunities to know the better in giving.   

Please note that I am NOT talking about times when more consideration is needed before making a donation.  There is certainly plenty of reason to take time to make a prudent giving decision. Taking time to think through a donation opportunity is not Good Intention Time.  That is just smart time. The GIT is experienced when a person knows he wants to give but holds off on acting because he doesn’t have his wallet or the light is about to turn green or there is work to do.  There are plenty of things to put in there, plenty of things to get in the way of experiencing the joy of a charitable act. But that is the reason why we must take action when we know to give, when we see an image and understand the need, when we see the sign and feel that impulse, when we hear of the problem and know we can help.  

As Givers we must be ready to act! We must be ready to eliminate the GIT and move forward into the blessing of the gift.