Learning to Give - P2

If you haven’t read Part 1 of this series we encourage you to do so before going further.  The abridged version is: people don’t develop a life of giving naturally. We naturally want to keep everything we get.  If a person is to become a giver, they will learn how it is done, why it should be done and the personal benefit received from giving.

Certainly a very notable book written on the topic of giving is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.  It seems that in writing the book Mr. Dickens was intent on scaring a person right into a philanthropic life! However, while the book is a fantastic tale and excellent entertainment,  when it comes to creating the desire to give within people, it falls short. This is not due to a lack of writing ability, but rather because giving is not learned through a book. You can definitely spell out the principles of giving and detail the benefits of it.  In fact, that is what we do at eMite with this Giving Encouragement blog! But while we may encourage someone to give, we will never be able to develop a life of giving in any person, young or old, simply through the words of this blog.  A life of giving is learned and developed through experience.

We can describe for you the wonderful smell of a gardenia.  We can describe the delectably sweet taste of honey. We can tell you about the feeling of a soft down comforter.  But unless you smell, taste and feel for yourself you will never really understand what these things are like. Giving is the same way.  

A person can listen to every lecture out there and read every book on the subject of charitable giving, but until they give, they are never going to truly learn the matter because they will have never experienced it.  A Life of Giving is learned through experience, and the first step in that experience is simply to give.