Give A Little

What do you feel you need today?

Love

Joy

Peace

Strength

Forgiveness

Finances

There are scriptures throughout the Bible that if you really pay attention, show us a very valuable lesson. You receive what you give.

You hate, you receive hate

You are ashamed of Him, He is ashamed of you

You forgive, You are forgiven

I always find what God gives is greater than what we give. He multiplies.

Sometimes we receive a response from someone based on what they are going through. Someone is hurt by a situation and they respond negatively towards you. We can tend to have the same response back. Anger for anger. Hate for hate. Downgrading words for downgrading words. If we could step back in these situations and look at what this person may truly be going through. Respond with love and kindness, and you might just receive it back.

Have compassion.

I had a patient once that many people didn’t like to take care of. Why? This patient complained constantly. This patient was rude. This patient seemed hard to please, and difficult to care for.

I’m going to be honest, every time I saw that I was assigned this patient, I dreaded it. Then one day that changed. As I walked into the patient’s room, I turned I saw the parents of this patient praying for the patient, I stopped. When those parents left, the patient laid in the bed with tears streaming down their face. I remember going in there and beginning to talk to that patient. As this person barely began to open up to me I realized the reason for being so “difficult”. It was a weakness. It was a response to brokenness. It was a response to a hurt so deep they didn’t know what to do with.

One thing my mother always said growing up was, be careful how you respond or what you say, you don’t know what that person has gone through.

Sometimes people respond to us in different ways, maybe even poorly, but is it due to something that has come along and broken them? They may be responding in their weakness.

That day with that patient changed my heart. From that point I wanted to care for that patient. I wanted to be there for them in that hurt. When this person was upset with me, I began to respond a little bit differently. I began to stop for a second and really think about how I was going to respond to them. This patient then began to change how they were responding to me.

Give a little bit of something today, you may be surprised that you will get something far greater in return. Give love to someone you may feel like doesn’t deserve it. You may not know their full story.