1 of 77

Yes

Write now Article Tools

If done in the right spirit, giving and receiving are one and the same. This concept becomes clear if you recall as a child how very proud you were to give mom or dad a gift that you made in school. Remember the joy you felt at just the knowing that your gift brought them happiness.

All too often, as we grow, the art of giving is lost as greed, other motives and competition take over. The meaning of Christmas, birthdays, friendships and relationships are buried and hidden in materialism. We do live in a very material world. We can't expect to change the world but we can do ourselves and those around us a favor by keeping our own motives in check.

The next time you are buying a gift for someone,pause and consider if the gift is coming from your heart or do you have expectations? It is very easy to just assume that we are buying for the right reasons when subconsciously we do have hidden motives. Are we spending more than we can afford in hopes to impress the other person or because that person spent more on us last time and we feel we "should"? Sometimes, we hope that person will care more about us.

Sometimes we mistake "gifts" for a sign of how much a person loves us. Consider the woman who gets upset when her husband forgets her birthday or anniversary. By examining the cause of her upset, most often she will find that she is upset not because of the absence of a gift but more because she was equating his love with material gifts.

I had an aunt who clearly demonstrated that giving and receiving are both one and the same.
By no means, a poor woman, this lady would often dress in rags. She was a model and an actress but oh so much more than that. As a little girl, I used to wonder why she was often out in the cold without a coat or would be wearing socks for mittens...unmatched ones at that.
My mother often complained that no matter what they bought her for gifts,she just gave it away. She would often say she was tempted to stop buying her gifts altogether.

As I grew and spent more and more time with my aunt, I came to understand what my mother never seemed to be able to. Walking through town with her on a bitter cold day, I watched her pull off a pair of beautiful gloves and give them a poor lady that had none. Out of her pockets came the socks. A while later, she gave her beautiful coat to a young lady whose coat was in tatters. Another time, she took apart a beautiful and very expensive stage dress and had it altered to fit a girl who could not afford a prom dress. Most of the people she did these things for did not know her personally at all. I guarantee you that she touched their lives and in doing so enriched her own. In my 51 years on this earth, she was probably one of the happiest people I have ever met. She passed away last year. She had absolutely no material wealth stashed away and many would think she died a very poor woman when in fact she was anything but.

Learn more about this author, sunseed.
Click here to send author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Is giving really better than receiving??
We want to hear your view. Write now!