Helping children in poverty is not an obligation but an opportunity. It allows us to grow emotionally and spiritually as we experience fulfillment through stewardship and the joy of loving sacrifice.
When we seek to relieve the wants and misery of others we are blessed. Giving out of a generous heart enables us to escape the hold material things and money have over us. Joyful giving frees us from our disappointment and lifts us up out of our emptiness when financial success eludes us or fails to satisfy our souls.
“A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.” – Proverbs 22:9 (NIV)
How has this Scripture been true in your life? Does it have any relevance?
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I think that there is more to blessings than just material possessions and wealth. I believe that when people learn to trust God and be generous with what he has given them, they grow closer to God and that is one of the blessings that they receive.
Having said that, I can point to two instances where I took a leap of faith and God provided financial blessings. I decided to sponsor a boy named Elian from Ecuador who has special needs. Shortly after sponsoring him my boss told me that the raise I was expecting was actually going to be 5x asmuch as I had thought! That ammount more than covered Elian’s sponsorship.
Later I made the decision to take on the sponsorship of one of my correspondent kids who had lost her sponsor. A couple weeks later I got a call from my bank saying that I had won a contest that I did not even know I had entered!!! (yes, it was legit).
I am so thankful for all of my sponsored and correspondence kids, and for the lessons that I learn from them daily. I thank God that I can be a part of their lives and that they can be a part of mine. I consider that alone to be a great blessing from God.
Indeed when we start giving we start becoming like God.He enjoys giving even those who to “worldly standards” qualify to receive from him.Giving frees us from our own limitations.
thank you mum for sharing that.
ib
We originally thought we would ‘do something nice’ by sponsoring a child. After visiting the children we sponsor, we were immensely changed by the experience, and realized we had received blessings that money could not buy.
I have been a sponsor for 20 years and the last 10 years my husband and I have been living on his retirement income. I have been able to visit most of the children that I have sponsored during those 20 years and have seen in my life the blessings that God has given both me and the children. Going to Ghana and meeting Georgina’s family and hearing from her Father, “we haven’t stopped praying for you either, we fast and pray every Friday for you” is one of the greatest blessings God could give me. My children and grandchildren are also sponsors and over 100 families in my church sponsor children. This is just a huge blessing to me. I know that I have more than enough materially and the reason for that is to be able to share what I have with others. “It is more blessed to give than receive” is absolutely positively true.
Amen. We have been so privileged to sponsor our 3 kids. The letter we received from our sponsor child, Juan, this month, opened with the line “The greatest family in the world is reading this letter”. Wow! A huge blessing to us to be able to help. We definitely have received as much or more than we have given.
I’ve read that the word “blessed” means “happy”. In our culture, we seem to equate blessing with having material goods, and over the years our family has learned that things just don’t bring us the happiness we expect from them. Being sponsors is one of the greatest joys our family has known, so much so that now our adult children are sponsors, too! Through the years of sponsorship, the children’s letters and progress, their photos and answered prayers (ours for them and theirs for us), all bring us far more happiness than we ever dreamed possible!
Since we began our first sponsorship in June of 2009, our family has been blessed in SO many ways. We’ve been able to look at “wants vs. needs” in a whole new light. Being good stewards of the money God has given us is now a high priority. We’re a single income family with three daughters, but yet we still have the ways and means to care for 6 Compassion children. We all realize, our family has everything it needs. Would it be nice to go and replace our old couch with a new one? Or purchase a new Summer wardrobe? Sure. But, those things surely aren’t necessities. We’ll squeeze another year out of our old couch and when the time is right we will scour craigslist for a better one. We’ll be thankful for hand-me-down clothes and thrift shops.
We feel blessed by this change in attitude. We can see all that we have in life and be thankful. We don’t “need” more.
We got a letter a few months back from 7 year old Precious in Ghana. When she listed things she did for fun, sweeping the dirt floor of their home was on the top of the list. This hit me right in the heart. As a stay at home Mom, how many times had I grumbled about sweeping crumbs off of our floor? So, now, every time I sweep, I think of and pray for our sweet Precious. I thank God for our wood floors, sturdy walls and roof that doesn’t leak.
Truly, being involved with Compassion has changed our family in so many ways. I am deeply thankful.
The fact that I am able to sponsor my 7 kids, while in university, shows how true the verse is. Sponsoring makes me feel happy…truly happy. Material items don’t have that effect on me. Sure, I like getting something new as much as the next person, but it doesn’t make me feel fullfilled.