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For over two decades, Lori and I wrote and spoke as The Generous Husband and The Generous Wife. This week I want to go back to those roots.
A Bible-based definition of generosity would be something such as the following:
In the Bible, generosity is defined as the joyful, sacrificial, and willing practice of sharing time, talents, and material wealth with others. It is rooted in the character of God—who gave the ultimate gift of salvation through Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of our sins.
There are dozens of verses that command us to be generous. But as the definition above says, we should do it because we have been the recipient of generosity beyond measure or comprehension.
I think the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, found in Matthew 18:21-35, is relevant here. A king forgave a debt equal to billions of dollars to a servant. Then that same man had a fellow servant thrown in jail for a debt of about $10,000. When the king learned about this, it ended very badly for the first servant.
If we apply this to marriage, God is not amused with us when we fail to show our spouse generosity. In fact, there is good reason to suspect He is less generous to us when we act this way.
Generosity from our heart is far better than doing it out of concern about how God may deal with us, but I think we do well to understand what’s at stake. If you follow Jesus, generosity is not actually optional. And the closer someone is to you, the more generous you need to be with them. That means generosity starts at home with your spouse and your kids.
This is exactly what Lori realised when she decided to become generous almost four decades ago. Being generous to others would be easy; being generous at home was going to be very difficult. But she did it, and it changed our marriage, our family, and, in time, many other lives and marriages.
Are you ready to change your marriage? Spend a bit of time thinking about where you are and are not generous, and come back tomorrow to be challenged to do better.
~ This is Paul, and generosity is very much Doing Marriage Well.
How do you move pigs?
This is how we moved The Notorious P.I.Gs a few hundred feet on Saturday. Lift just off the ground, and nudge them along.
Image Credit: © Paul H Byerly created with Nano Banana 2
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