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.In fact, thank you forloving us at all.We don t deserve your grace and mercy, but we are certainlygrateful for how generously you give it to us.Inspire us with your heart ofgenerosity.And thank you that there is so much joy involved in becoming morelike you in this area.We are excited to discover what you have for us to learnabout generosity.Amen.That shared praying was nice.Thank you! Shall we get started on today stopic? Generosity.246 Generosity Day : Being Like GodA COACH WHO HAD IMPUREGENEROSITY MOTIVESI ve always been generous, to a fault.I have a tendency to give away ev-erything to everybody.Awhile back, I stopped to check my motives forbeing so generous with my time, money, and energy, and what I discoveredabout myself was not pretty.I must confess that I had a partially impuremotive as a people-pleaser.I wanted people to like me, so I catered to theirwishes giving them things to ensure that they would like me better.Now, Ithink I have finally wrestled that monster to the ground, but if not, I usuallyhave the common sense to check my motives at some point along the way!Out of all the character qualities we are examining, I think that gen-erosity is the one that most clearly shows us God s passionate, all-out, go-for-broke, get-their-attention, over-the-top love for us.If you want to picka characteristic to work on that will make you most like God, generosity isyour ticket.But you ll have better success with generosity if you have firstworked on contentment.Contentment is that inner restfulness that says, I ve got enough. Generosity goes a step further and demonstrates out-wardly what contentment believes inwardly.In other words, generosity seesa need and says, I ve got enough let me share with you! GOD GIVES.EXTRAVAGANTLYIf you want to grasp the scope of God s generosity, just try looking at theworld around us.All creation shouts that God is extravagantly gener-ous.Think about it.he didn t just give us a few flowers to smell niceand perk up our centerpieces.He gave us thousands of varieties of flow-ers wildflowers, roses, exotic orchids, and ridiculously huge peonies.Goddidn t just give us three primary colors.He gave us more colors than we cancome up with silly names for (like my personal favorite, Chocolate Licorice).And, he didn t just turn on the cosmic radio to the white noise setting.We get to hear bird serenades, rivers tumbling over boulders, the cracklingof a campfire, and rainfall on the roof.Not only does creation tell us about God s extravagance, but it also showshis generosity.He made the whole world in order to give it away! Genesis 1tells us that after God spoke the earth into existence, he gave it all to Adamby putting him in charge of the animal world and the garden of Eden.Ifit were me, I don t think I would have handed the earth over to a guy whowas only a few hours old.That would be like buying a new sports car and247 Part : The Making of a Right Relationship to Thingsthrowing the keys to your teenager who has had his license for a day andsaying, Here! Take it for a spin! And by the way, it s yours be good to it. But that s precisely what God did.He entrusted it all to us.WHOSE STUFF IS IT, ANYWAY?Yet, in our mythical car story, there is one hitch.You may have bought thecar for your teenager to use, but in reality, you are keeping the title.So it isin the case of God s world-class generosity.God created the world and gaveit to Adam to feed him and give him an occupation, but God still owns theworld; we humans are simply caretakers: The land is mine and you residein my land as foreigners and strangers (Leviticus 25:23).You may say, God doesn t own my house.I do! I worked hard to buythis house. To which God might reply, Oh really? Where exactly do you think yougot the ability to earn the living that bought you that house? Check outDeuteronomy 8:10 20.It is a powerful Scripture passage in which God re-minds us that we can t take credit for the food we eat, the land that grew it,the houses we build, or the money we have earned, because even our abilityto acquire what we have was given to us by him.That s pretty humbling tothink about, isn t it?GIVE IT UPJust like our other character traits, generosity is based on humility.It ishumbling to credit God for everything we acquire, but when we do so, ithelps us loosen our grip on our belongings and give them up to his control.Think about it this way: What is one of the ways toddlers first learn not to beso self-centered? When they are taught to share
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