To start out with, I think I will give an example of generosity I witnessed this last week. My husband took all the feedings Friday night. All of them. All.
I got about 9 hours of sleep Friday night! It was amazing! I wasn't at all tired Saturday, and even though I ended up having to take all the night feedings Saturday night (because he sprained his wrist and can't pick up the baby now), I wasn't really tired on Sunday either!
That is generosity!
"There are many people who can do big things, but there are very few people who will do the small things."
This is about giving. More than giving THINGS though, it is about giving care, love, time to others. Again she talks about the horrible plight of feeling unloved and unwanted, and how it is those with a generous heart, that seek to heal the hurt in those who feel like the world has shunned and despised them.
Whenever I would ask my dad if I could do something or go somewhere, he would normally say yes as long as it didn't cost him much time or effort, but if I asked him to drive me somewhere, most of the time he would say no. He would site his selfish nature and that would be that.
I think, though, that everyone has a selfish nature. It comes from the years in our lives when we believed the world revolved around us. That feeling, I believe, never quite goes away. However, there are many who choose to fight the selfish nature inside themselves. Those who, the minute they notice that nature rearing its head, immediately go out and do something unselfish in order to beat their selfishness into submission.
There are also those who are more subtle about it, of course...and probably those who have shunned selfishness for so long, that selflessness becomes second-nature.
All of this is to say that I know I am a selfish being, and it takes world to beat that selfishness into submission, and some times I don't even try, because it is too easy to be selfish, and I am tired. However, most of the time I do try, in little ways, to give my time, my energy, my love to others, even when I feel like doing nothing more than crawling into bed with a book and not leaving for a week.
What small acts of selflessness do others do in order to beat back their selfish natures?
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