Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for July 19th, 2008

“Let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (II Corinthians 9:7)

Why would anyone give their money away in a cheerful way? We work hard for our money, and we have many bills to pay, so why would you give it away cheerfully?

Here are a couple of reasons I can give:

• It’s going to do some good for my community, my family or my friends. Pretty selfish reason, but a good reason to be cheerful giving money to a local charity or local community group.
• It’s going to help someone I love, like say paying for my kids’ University Education (yes, I complain about the price of it, but the money is given happily).
• It’s going to help someone, I give to the United Way for that reason. I know the United Way has a high overhead, but some of the money is going to do someone some good (I really hope).
• It’s going to help someone get better, like when I give blood (#14 two weeks ago, which is not much, but it is a start).
• It’s going to make me feel good too. That is the usual reason I give to charity is the selfish happy feeling I get (maybe it’s smugness, I don’t know) that I am helping in some small way.

Give Cheerfully, and enjoy the feeling