You frequently hear it’s more blessed to give than receive. It is also easier to give than receive if you are self-reliant, prideful or lack humility. I am by no means saying anyone has these issues if they decline assistance; there are legitimate reasons to decline, we just need to be aware of our motives.
If everyone gave and no one received, then who would the giver give to, and how would they be blessed by giving if they could not give? There is nothing wrong in humbly receiving; it is not that we expect, demand or think it is owed.
Having recently experienced the other side of the coin, going from blessing others to being on the receiving end; I had a choice to make, accept or decline. Did I pass with flying colors, humbling accepting? Well…not 100%. The meal part was easy, after all I like food; but two saintly ladies showed up with meals, they also asked what they could do to help and offered housecleaning. Now comes the failure part, the initial offer was easy to decline; knowing they were coming I had managed a little vacuuming. There was no sense of pride until…until they offered again specifically mentioning cleaning my shower. Why did they have to say “shower”, these two had not even been in my bathroom, how could they know I had just noticed a couple of spots on the wall? It was not much but it bugged me, and I had even called an individual who did housecleaning but was unavailable. So why was I now declining these two heaven sent volunteers offer to clean “the shower”? Yup, you guessed it, Pride! So did I potentially rob my friends of a blessing or reject the Lord showing his love and meeting a practical need via human assistance? Not to mention I still had a dirty shower! Later I swallowed my pride, called and confessed, which didn’t feel good to the flesh either, but we enjoyed a good laugh.
So what is the lesson? The Lord used my circumstances to reveal something on the inside. Not that I want a next time, but if there is, perhaps I will pass.
But alas, the story didn’t end here…
The next day another saint visits and wouldn’t you know it, she asks if she can scrub my floors; yes, there were spots on them too. Laughingly I relate the day’s before shower story, being quick witted she offers to clean my shower. I do decline but not from pride this time. However, the next visitor asking about cleaning my shower – I’m just going to hand them the supplies.
Beyond the Silver Coin 