The Richness of Generosity: How Giving Transforms Our Hearts and Others

Since I began researching lifestyle stewardship in the late 1970s, I have been attracted to giving stories.  Over the years, I have uncovered hundreds of wonderful illustrations that record how God uses people like you and me to influence and change the lives of those in our sphere of influence.  God’s plan centers on Him giving to you and, in turn, you giving to others. This is all about being obedient and generous.   At the core, it is God to people and people to people.  When we are obedient and generous, we serve as Authorized Wealth Distributors! 

I still look for stories that illustrate faithful stewardship. When I find good stories, I file them away. These stories often show in practical ways how God uses people to change people’s lives. God expects you and me to watch for opportunities to give ourselves to others. Most of the stories are not about money. While money can be a part of the story, it is not the focus. Money is simply one of many tools that can be used to change a life.  

In the early 1980s, I found a story by an unknown Eddie Ogan that left a lasting impression on me.  A few weeks ago—and over 40 years later—I found the exact same story posted on the website. If Eddie is alive today, she is 92.  Eddie’s recollection of her childhood experience is worth passing on to you today: 

Blessings From Potatoes and Potholders

I’ll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy 12, and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was like to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money. By 1946, my older sisters were married, and my brothers had left home.

A month before Easter, the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially. When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. Then we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn’t listen to the radio, we’d save money on that month’s electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us baby sat for everyone we could. For 15 cents, we could buy enough cotton loops to make three potholders to sell for $1. We made $20 on potholders.

The Best Month Of Our Lives!

That month was one of the best of our lives. Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we’d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family would enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in our church, so we figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, the Pastor reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering every Sunday.

The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change. We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before. That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn’t care that we wouldn’t have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering. We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn’t own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn’t seem to matter how wet we got.

Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet, but we sat in church proudly, despite how we looked. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt so rich.

Time For The “Sacrificial Offering”

When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us girls put in a $20. As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch, Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes!

Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn’t say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 bill, and seventeen $1 bills. Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn’t talk, but instead, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash.

Finding Out You Are…. Poor.

We kids had had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn’t have our mom and dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the fork or the spoon that night. We had two knives which we passed around to whoever needed them. I knew we didn’t have a lot of things that other people had, but I’d never thought we were poor. That Easter Day I found out we were poor. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor.

I didn’t like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed that I didn’t want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor! I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew we were poor. I decided I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time.

We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally, on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn’t know. We’d never known we were poor.

“Can we all sacrifice to help these poor people?”

We didn’t want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn’t talk on the way. Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church, we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun-dried bricks, but they need money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, “Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people?”

We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week. Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put itin the offering plate. The minister announced the offering was a little over $100 when it was counted. The missionary was excited. He hadn’t expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, “You must have some rich people in this church.”

We Were The Rich Family….

Suddenly, it struck us! We had given $87 of that “little over $100.” We were the rich family in the church! Hadn’t the missionary just said so?

From that day on, I’ve never been poor again. I’ve always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!

Time For Some Personal Reflection!

 

How has Eddie’s reflection on her experience helped you today?  Who missed out on being blessed?  Who was most blessed?  What attitude shift have you made in the last five minutes?  What do you have in your possession that God wants you to give?  What are you going to do with what you got? 

Larry O’Nan

Larry O’Nan is the author of Intentional Living and Giving and a seasoned consultant with over 40 years of experience. He helps individuals and organizations align their resources with God’s purpose, inspiring intentional living and generous stewardship rooted in biblical principles.