For those of you who are new to Life Compass, I write on Spirituality, Faith and Ethics on Sundays. Here’s why.
Since New Year’s, I’ve been reading from The Proverbs each week with my 13 year old son, as I seek to share wisdom to help him in his journey from childhood to manhood.
No matter how many times I read from The Proverbs, I always gain fresh and new insights. Here’s a verse that particularly impacted me this week:
The world of the generous gets larger and larger: the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. – Proverbs 11:24 (The Message)
When I read this, my mind immediately went to author and speaker Tim Sanders, and his books: Love is the Killer App and The Likeability Factor. I’ve followed Tim for several years now, since I first heard him speak at The Global Leadership Summit.
Tim believes that business people can achieve greater success by generously sharing their knowledge, network, and compassion with their business partners. In other words, he thinks you get farther ahead by giving as much as you can, instead of seeking to get as much as you can. Ironically, you gain as you give.
This is something I’ve felt led to work on in my own life in the last few years. I want to live a more generous life. I want to be more attentive to the needs of those around me. I want to bless those I come in contact with – with a smile if nothing else, but hopefully also with a kind and encouraging word.
Have you ever seen the truth of this scripture played out in your own life, or the lives of others? Have you noticed a situation where the world of a stingy person closed in on them, and the world of a generous person expanded and they became more successful?
You might also like:
- What keeps your love strong in tough times?
- It’s more blessed to give than receive
- Are successful people just lucky?
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post. I like the idea of living with an abundance mentality, as opposed to a scarcity mentality. It’s easy to get caught up in a scarcity mentality, feeling as though there’s only one pie and that pie can only give out so many slices. Often my first instinct is to hold on to my stuff, my time and my money because I fear losing something or I fear being left out. If I can get over that initial instinct and fear, and assume that there’s more where that came from, I receive both the good feeling from the act of sharing AND often the joyful discovery of more and better gifts.
Ami, thanks for sharing your insights re: the power of having an abundance mentality!