THE POWER OF GIVING.

Yesterday, some friends came to visit me. After staying for about an hour in my house, they decided it was time to go. I saw them off to their car and while making last minute conversations, a woman carrying a little child on her back came to us to beg for money. My friends either didn't have to give or didn't want to give because they shuned her. I iniatially wasn't interested in what she was saying 'cos I wasn't carrying any money on me, but then the little child she was carrying started wailing. The woman then told us her baby was hungry and she had two more at home who haven't eaten. That caught my attention, because if there's anything I have much sympathy for, it's hungry children. So I asked her to wait downstairs while I went upstairs to get her some money. When I went through my wallet, I realised I only had N1, 500 left...how much do I give her now I wondered? I decided to part with N1, 000 because I'd been planning to go to the bank the following day anyway. So I went back downstairs and handed the money to the woman after which she prayed for me and my companions for at least 15 minutes. She told us she hadn't held such an amount in a long time...at this point I felt really sorry for her...N1, 000 meant so much to her. Anyway, after all the prayers she left us to continue our conversation...I did hear her humming a praise song as she walked away.

The next day, which is today, I got to the office, worked on the things I needed to work on and as I made to leave for the bank, I got a call from someone I hadn't seen in a long time. We met up 30minutes later in my office, went out to lunch, and spent about an hour catching up on old times. This friend of mine just came into Nigeria from his base in Sweden. As he was leaving, he squeazed some money into my hands. I didn't check the amount until after he had left. Then I opened my hands and counted $500. I hadn't been expecting to hear or get a dime from him... all this just happened.

Why am I telling this story? There's nothing more powerful than giving. Because when you give, you will receive bountifully. I remembered what I'd done the previous day to help that sad woman with a crying, hungry child on her back and knew this was my reward. I gave one grand and got almost 70grand in return. It was that woman's prayers that made this guy remember me and give when I didn't even ask.

Sometimes we do not get rewarded immediately for things we do, but our reward will surely come, directly to us or to our children or even our children's children. If you have, please give to those who don't have. Be it money, accomodation, food, whatever it is, as long it's yours to give, do give. God will reward you in more ways than you can imagine. Don't forget he sees everything we do and knows when we've been good.

It's very important to say here that you don't do good hoping to be rewarded, that should not be your main reason, just be good for the sake of being good. Don't worry about the rewards, it will come...eventually.