As the saying goes, as we give, so shall we receive. Yet, what does this really mean? When asked, most people may relate it to money and how the more money that we give, the more that we will receive. Yet, this many not be exactly right. We focus on money, yet tithing is more than money.

The law of tithing also applies to feelings like kindness, love, resentments and anger. The more love and kindness we give to the world, the more we will see and receive back. The more anger we give to the word, the more we will also see and receive back. And, it can be a circular cycle and it may not necessarily come right back in the same form. Like the story goes, the father comes home angry from work and takes it out on his son. His son then goes and kicks the dog to retaliate for his dad getting angry at him. The dog then goes and bites the father the next morning. The father then goes in and takes his anger out at work Thus, when one person gets angry, the anger spreads.

If what we give is what we receive, how can we explain how a person who is filled with love and kindness like Mother Teresa or Dali Lama can receive anything but love and kindness? What about how China has treated the Dali Lama, it surely isn’t with kindness? There will always be incidents that do not appear to go according to the rule which we can use as evidence of how the world is mistreating us for all that we give. Yet, if one asks the Dali Lama how his life has been, he would say that it is full of love and kindness because he refuses to receive the anger and hatred that the Chinese government have sent towards him and his people. Even though hatred and anger has been given by others, he has refused to receive it (in other words dwell on it). He has rather focused on love and kindness and thus, love and kindness is what expands in his life.

So how does this apply to finances? First, giving and receiving cycle are not necessarily immediate. Thus, when you give, do not be disappointed if nothing comes back right away because it sometimes it does not happen right away. If you do get disappointed, you may not see the gift that the universe is giving back to you at a later date (or those gifts you are already receiving).

Second, if we focus on how bad (lack) we have it because of what our government (and/or our boss) is doing to us, then that is what expands (our lack). Yet, if we change our focus to abundance, we will see how great our lives really are. Even those living in poverty in the United States probably have more than 90% of the people in the rest of the world. Yet, if the focus is on lack, then that is what we will experience. Two people in the same situation can experience life completely different depending on if they see their abundance (being grateful for what they have) or if they see their lack and misery. It is not about the money, yet our focus (what we allow in our lives). Is the focus more like Dali Lama (what is right) or more like Dilbert (what is wrong)? What we focus on is how we experience life.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 at 10:43 am and is filed under Tithing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.