THE PAIN OF GIVING

𝐛𝐲 𝐋𝐲𝐫𝐚 𝐋𝐢𝐦-𝐈𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐨

One Sunday, I attended Mass with my brother and his 3 sons—my nephews who are aged 3, 5 and 8 years old respectively.

During offertory, my brother took out 3 different bills (100, 50 and 20 pesos) from his wallet for my nephews to drop to the love offering basket. The boys were excited and hurriedly pulled the bills from their father’s hand.

With so much enthusiasm and without knowing the value of these bills, my 5-year-old nephew said: “𝘚𝘢 𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦” (20 pesos).

I giggled as I watched them drop their offerings to the basket with so much joy.

It was a sight to behold for that scene reminded me of our Heavenly Father, who blesses us and provides for us. Like how my brother provided for my nephews’ offering, everything that we have comes from the Father and whatever we give belongs to Him from the beginning.

Last Wednesday, I gave our usual tithes at the Feast. I held onto my love offering envelope tightly while we prayed over our gifts. It was hard earned money that I was surrendering to the Lord.

We still have debts and a lot of bills to pay, yet every payday, my husband and I make it a point to give our first fruits to the Lord.

I remember Rissa Kawpeng, the Editor-in-Chief of our Feast Magazine, said in one of her talks: 𝑯𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊 𝒌𝒂 𝒑𝒂 𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒚 𝒏𝒂 𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒃𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒚 𝒌𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊 𝒌𝒂 𝒑𝒂 𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒚.

And it’s true. Giving hurts. Yet nothing can outdo God’s generosity. 𝑫𝒂𝒉𝒊𝒍 𝑺𝒊𝒚𝒂 𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒃𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒕 𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒚 𝒏𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝑵𝒊𝒚𝒂 𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝑲𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒖𝒉𝒂𝒚.

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