Hi, I'm Sam,
One of the many ways I know that I truly love someone or group of people is my intense desire to share anything I have no matter the quantity with them. As much as sharing can be considered to be a selfish act, I like to see it as a bonding act because in the moment that you decide to give away some, if not all of what you have in your possession, you're saying a lot to the other person without using your words and you will very much be understood even though some might decide to misunderstand you but deep down they understand your intentions. I don't only show love by sharing physical things, it's deeper when I can share intangible things like my love, emotions, thoughts etc which creates a deeper connection because I am able to transfer something I cannot touch, taking it or duplicating it from within and doing my absolute best to give it to someone else without reducing the potency and to have the other person experience it in full, in addition to what they already have in them and whatever they have in them does not in anyway mix or alter what has been shared.
They say charity begins at home but as much as this is understood, it is also misunderstood. I cannot give love except I have love but having enough love to give is not the main thing but also giving myself love out of the plenty or little love I have is also very important. This is the reason why it is possible to find someone so full of love and so good at sharing love but they come off as though they don't love themselves. Because they've placed so much importance on giving away what they have that it's either they do not have any left or they just see giving to themselves as waste because they think no one will notice. But the thing is that people notice but are too selfish to point it out that they need to love themselves as well because they wonder if they will still get the amount of love they're getting if the person decides to keep a certain percentage of the love they have to themselves. Furthermore, the lack of desire to be labeled as selfish has made certain people not bother to show themselves love. There are things that you can never run out of no matter how much you decide to give it out and share it, if anything, the more you give it out the more it grows in abundance in your barn. Givers never lacking is not restricted to money or material things.
I say this all the time, I am always the first to give myself grace before I am able to receive it from someone else. If I cannot take it, how do I know how to receive it or what to do with it when someone else gives it to me. I give myself grace enough to pick myself up and encourage myself but not so much to ignore what went wrong or what I can work on. Before I can share my grace to others, I have to give myself a taste in order to anticipate how valuable it will be to someone else. If Grace was invaluable to me then there is a good chance that it will be of no value to someone else. Because I have a taste of what it is, I know how important it is to give it to someone else at all times because what I have enjoyed can also be enjoyed by someone else.
By the time I make it a habit to give myself grace in different aspects of my life, I find it pertinent to give it to someone else in whatever quantity their situation may require it. But when the value of something is not understood, abuse is inevitable, from a personal experience, grace has been abused and ultimately termed stupidity and I didn't know exactly how to react to that. I had to sort through different blood-bubbling emotions to know how to act in that situation and how to act in the future with the same person and with others who may not value or respect what I have to give. People don't realize that their actions in reciprocation to what they get from others initiates a ripple effect on how those people act when someone else is involved. Paying forward sometimes can take a backflip and not stick the landing. You want to do something but you have to take account and try as much as you can to anticipate the outcome, sometimes the outcome is better than we'd ever imagine and sometimes it's exactly as we pictured in our heads. The next actions depends on what you have mapped out for the different scenarios and there's also an option of throwing away whatever you have mapped out in your mind and moving with the motion but trying to act in the best way possible.
While I share grace with you, would you share grace with me as well? Or do you think that it is something that I always have to be the one giving out. You don't have to give me the grace but it is important to pay the goodwill forward because you cannot harvest what and where you didn't sow. No one has ever planted yam and hoped to harvest maize on a land they have no idea who cleared, planted and nurtured without feeling like they're doing something unacceptable.
In church, when they say "Let's share in the Grace", this is what we recite,
"May the Grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, rest and abide with us all, now and forevermore"
All I've ever known is that we need grace and it's something we should abide in for the rest of our lives and it's also something we need to share we the next person. Grace utilized, is Grace shared. As you spread love, also remember to share Grace and the day you might share Grace with that one person you constantly debate if they need it or not might be the day your kind gesture nudges them to the right side and ultimately turn them to a better way of life.
