At a conference I attended recently, someone remarked that they had heard that America has become a generation of takers, as opposed to givers. According to the statement, the post-World War II generation that knew how to sacrifice and save are slowly dying off. I'm not sure if I entirely agree with this assumption, but can certainly understand how someone might arrive at this conclusion. The following is an observation that may help demonstrate my point.
I once worked in an office where one of my team members set a candy dish in a visible area on top of the partition between their office and their neighbor's. This team member would bring bite-sized pieces of candy and put it in the dish and it was common knowledge that it was available to anyone who wanted some. There was an underlying "assumption" that those who chose to "partake" would also help "provide." Since I sat across the aisle, I was able to make some observations surrounding this community candy dish...
Interestingly, there were some team members who frequented the candy dish often, almost daily, but never once brought candy to help replenish the bowl. There were also others who would either contribute money to buy more candy once in a while or that would purchase candy to add to the bowl occasionally. What was interesting, is that the givers always seemed to be the same givers and the takers also always seemed to be the same takers. Now I am not saying the people who never brought anything are bad people or that they just "take" all the time. However, I will say, that sometimes you see the true character of a person in the small things.
Working with people over the years has led me to several conclusions concerning people who give and people who take:
1. Givers are usually givers most if not all of the time.
2. It is difficult for a giver to be a taker even when they have the opportunity.
3. Takers are usually takers most if not all of the time.
4. It is difficult for a taker to be a giver much of the time.
Givers give all of themselves and then some. Takers take everything a giver has to give and leaves the giver depleted with little left for themselves. What amazes me, is that even though givers give all, they are never without, for God blesses them for their gift and as the Psalmist said, their "cup runneth over."
Where are you in the spectrum of give and take? If you're leaning a little to close to the "take" side, it may be good for you to remember the words of Christ who said, "it is better to give than to receive," and then demonstrated His belief in those words by giving His all on the Cross.
The image above was taken by Sarah Casha, a graphic design student at the California State University, Chico. Sarah has made this graphic available free of charge for others who may be interested in using this photo.
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