Extravagant Generosity

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:7, NIV

Kindness was the reason I married my husband. Oh sure, I loved his blue eyes and his bear hugs and his snappy wit, too, but his generosity was what originally piqued my interest.

I met Tim the year after my sister had died from a five-year cancer battle. To honor her memory, my family started a foundation that benefited girls and women. We decided that our big fund-raiser for the foundation would be a mountain climb in Colorado. Since Tim had been a business associate of my dad’s for several years and my dad knew Tim was from Colorado, he invited him to come along to climb the Mount of the Holy Cross, a fourteen-thousand-foot peak located near Minturn, Colorado.

The climb itself was a long, exhausting success, one our family would repeat on other “fourteeners” for several years to come. But the day after the climb, we celebrated by meeting up with all of the folks who climbed with us, as well as with their families, for breakfast at a local restaurant. As the meal came to a close, Tim graciously picked up the tab for all of us.

I was already intrigued by Tim’s personality and charm, but his generosity? That won me over. Moved by his thoughtfulness, I sent him an e-mail after we arrived home, thanking him for his kindness. We were married less than a year later.

What Tim displayed on that day many years ago is a quality that I’ve come to appreciate more and more as time goes on. Scripture says that God loves a cheerful giver, and I’ve found that I do too. The people who impress me the most—the ones I want to have as friends and whom I choose to surround myself with—aren’t impressive because of their wealth, status, or good looks, but because they love to give. They are extravagantly generous to those in need, and their cheerful attitudes are contagious. Like Tim, they have learned the value of giving cheerfully.

—Kristin

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

What act of outrageous generosity can you do? It doesn’t have to be monetary. Bless someone beyond what they would or could expect.

From the book