The world of the generous gets larger and larger;
the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.Proverbs 11:24 from The Message
Princess Leia once said “The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.” The same idea apply to all areas of our life, not just our personal finance, but our life in general. That’s what this verse says to me, but the opposite is also true. For the ability to receive more you have to be open & allow some of what your desire to hold on to to potentially go away.
This verse fits well with all the ones along the lines of “don’t correct a fool, or someone who does not want to be corrected” because you are not being generous with your correction, you are being stingy. I’ve struggled with being over corrective, thinking I was being generous.
The other mistake I have made is being too closed off … or stingy with the ability to get to know me.
I still protect myself, but I am much more open and attempting to be generous with what I have and produce. Posting more pictures, telling more stories, etc. I have written about philosophy and my world view at least 10 (probably over 13) years off and on. It has only been in the last few months that I shared anything as personal as this type of post for the world to read. In the past I might share with a small group of people, or even a messageboard, but never in a place that had the two elements of “me being me and everyone knows it” and “me being totally real”.
If the world focused on generosity, and I do not mean the peer pressure similar to “being green” or other past social trends, but really focusing on being willing to work within their strength(s) to do what they could to provide value to others & develop relationship …
It would be a different world. One where each person would have more connections with the people around them. Thus when issues came up in the life of one, well others would come around them and help, but also the person would not take it as much of their world coming to an end, because their world is getting ever larger, even if parts go away, die, or end.
Loosing a friend, job, or toy is much easier when you have “replacement(s)”* either already in place or on the way.
*NOTE: just to not be mistaken for too callous – not saying friendships can ever be fully replaced, or any relationship that ends, but that the pain can go away easier if you have 2,000 real true life friends easier then if you have 1.
Part of the Proverbs Challenge series
