Exploring Manhood in ExodusEsimerkki

It's in Giving That We Receive

My mother told me that our local newspaper was looking for paperboys. I was only in the third grade, but entrepreneurial blood was already coursing through my veins, so I pedaled my bicycle downtown to apply for the job.

A few days later the phone call came: I had my first paid assignment at 1.5 cents per paper. This story, along with the one about trudging to school in three feet of snow with my feet bound in rags, is part of our family’s folklore. Just ask my long-suffering daughters.

For the first time in my life, I had “my own money,” independent and free. I could stop at Parmilla’s Drug Store on Main Street and buy a Dr. Pepper and bubble gum—without asking my parents’ permission. I had earned this money; it was mine to spend.

But once I spent my money at Parmilla’s, it was gone. In order to splurge at the drug store again, I had to fill my canvas bag with more copies of The Daily Journal and pedal from house to house . . . again. I remember, even at this early age, feeling the dread.

Forty years later, I sat in the sanctuary of a small rural church planted in the fertile hills of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. My family and I were at my maternal grandfather’s funeral service. One of his sons, my uncle Eber, read something my grandfather had written:

“I leave to my family something more valuable than money. I leave them something they will not need to divide. I leave my family my love for them and my faith in Jesus Christ, something each one can enjoy in full.”

My eyes welled up with tears as I remembered this wise, faithful, and generous man.

Today’s Scripture invites “everyone whose heart is willing” to bring a portion of what they earn to the Lord as an offering. Why? Because the money we give away brings us more happiness than anything . . . even more satisfying than bubble gum and Dr. Pepper. There’s no dread in this expenditure. Giving reminds us that life’s most precious possessions are the intangibles of our faith in God and our love for our family and for others.

Enjoy an eternal bank account filled with “funds'' that don’t disappear once they’re spent. Lavishly spend what will multiply when it’s divided.

This plan has been adapted from the CSB Men’s Daily Bible. Learn more at www.mensdailybible.com.