January 22. How Long Do You Hold a Gift Before Opening It?

We hopefully all arrive at the table today to gather nutrients to fuel our bodies and minds. The energy that we receive is what allows us to return something as we depart from the table as well. As leaders, I ask today what is it that we will give? Will we choose guidance, training, or praise?

Could it be appreciation, affirmation or maybe a raise or bonus? We have the power to give every day. I suspect that it is a power that we often fail to exercise as we might. When you consider it, our gift can actually be one of the least expensive items to share with others. \

Regardless of our station in life, we all have been given much from those that have come before us. Some chose to receive the gifts of the past and retain it for themselves. Others receive the gift of the past and only give it forward when demanded.

When you reflect on the previous ninety days, where did you receive the most value from someone else? What is it that they gave? As we look forward to the next ninety days, we might receive the most if our focus is on what it is that we can give as leaders.

If there is a quarter of the year that could affect the others the most, it just might be this one. What is the first thing you might do to reinvest your gifts of talent, skill, and wisdom for the benefit of your team?

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we have received the gift of grace. We read, "And he gave each of them new clothes—but to Benjamin he gave five changes of clothes and three hundred pieces of silver.

He also sent his father ten male donkeys loaded with the finest products of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other supplies he would need on his journey." Genesis 45:22-23 NLT.

These were gifts from Joseph who received power, influence, and wealth from the Pharaoh of Egypt. He sends gifts instead of a demand of justice against his brothers who made him an outcast in the first place. Here are four ideas to focus on for giving. Will we give love?

There are many around us that are hurting and do not have people in their lives to support them with love. Love is the most valuable asset that we can have. It is an asset that grows the most when we give it away. Will we give trust? Giving trust is about relationships.

The process of being in relationship with another is bound to ask you to give your trust to the other person. God asked us to trust in his gift to reconcile us. We will fall away from the close relationship he wants with us by withholding our trust. Will we give our resources?

We have been blessed with many resources. Those resources include our earthly things like money, our time, talents, and wisdom. A life filled with resources kept to one’s self is like sharing them with a mirror. How long would it take looking in the mirror to realize that it is lonely there?

A mirror will not celebrate your life like the relationships we can build on this earth. Will we give forgiveness? In our broken world, we have the opportunity every day to forgive. The choice we get to make is will we keep our damaged and broken world or will we move to the forgiven world.

A reconciled world can bring growth and a stronger relationship. Let us share and give love, trust, our resources, and forgiveness.

Let us pray, Heavenly Father, your blessings are so bountiful that they are beyond measure. They are like the grains that Joseph gathered in the Bible prior to the seven-year drought of Egypt. You give so much that records cannot be kept.

Give us confidence in those blessings, envisioned like massive piles of grain waiting to be shared. Encourage us to give to those that we think are not worthy, as much as to those that we think are deserving.

Soften our hearts to give to the unloved and to the loved. Move among us Lord. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen,