ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Why does "Giving" work so well?

Updated on November 6, 2014
"Seeds from Heaven" preliminary art.
"Seeds from Heaven" preliminary art. | Source
The Bible discussess "Giving" many times.
The Bible discussess "Giving" many times. | Source
Giving is not all about money.
Giving is not all about money. | Source
Giving back to our parents
Giving back to our parents | Source
Somali child. Thousands starve everyday.
Somali child. Thousands starve everyday. | Source

THE IMPORTANCE OF GIVING

Those who quote the Bible often point to the admonition, "Cast your bread upon the water, for after many days you will find it again."

"Cast your bread upon the water" is a Hebrew expression which means, "Give generously." The Living Bible more aptly states this particular verse in the following manner: "Give generously, for your gifts will return to you later." Many have attested that this system really works well. They often point to an instance in which they gave away something one day and received a great reward shortly afterward.

Is there a Cause and Effect?

Most often these instances do not have a cause-and-effect relationship. Such a story suggests that a spiritual force was at work.

Organized religions almost always point to this remarkable type of event, most often before passing the collection plate. Since a small token of giving promises great rewards, most members will drop a few coins into the plate, only half believing that the coins will really be returned the following week.

“Have faith that it will happen” (Ecclesiastes 11:9) and “ Whatever a man sows he shall reap (Galatians 7, Living Bible) could very well be slogans offered by the state lottery system in hopes of increasing its revenues. Surely the Bible had some other purpose in mind for making these incredible statements. However, the event happens much too often to be dismissed lightly and cast aside as a total misconception.

The Scientific Approach

Is there a law of giving? Is there a balance of nature that says that a giver will almost always receive something back for his efforts without divine intervention? Other laws of nature seem apparent too, like "You can't have something for nothing, " which most often is an action attempted by takers.

What is the act of giving?

Most of us would say that true giving is done without the certainty of reward. Something tangible or intangible would be passed from you to another individual with no anticipation that the receiver would ever repay you. You would expect to sacrifice some of your resources so that another person could benefit.

This could also take into account that you probably felt that your survival was somewhat assured without the item that you managed to give away. Certainly no one would give away an item that was essential to his own personal survival or allow something that he gave away to threaten his survival.

However, his personal survival could be slightly one less item, bringing you one step closer to not surviving. Possession of material goods is directly related to anyone's survival. Whenever something is given away, we have fewer possessions.

Assuming that a person's income and consumption were exactly equal, if he gave away an item occasionally, his original equity would eventually be lost and he would be penniless. Since no one would place himself in this precarious position, we could calculate that most givers would be earning more than they consumed.

Many times the item given away is actually totally worthless to the giver. How often have we all given an old coat or a pair of pants to the Salvation Army simply because we wanted to give to someone less fortunate than ourselves? We feel better giving something away for a worthwhile cause than simply throwing it into a trash can.

Since a giver must be earning more than he consumes, he is actually transferring some of his purchasing power to someone else. He is in effect saying, "I do not need to consume more. I've consumed my share, now it is time to allow others to consume a portion of my assets.”


Many Wealthy Individuals tend to be Generous


This is why, in my opinion, most wealthy people are very generous with their wealth. They realize that it would be impossible to personally consume all the wealth they have accumulated and decide to share it with their fellow man. It’s a kind of “Thank you,” since it was their fellow man that created the wealth for them in the first place.

Giving is not all about Money

The giving of intangible items like cheerfulness, hope, optimism or love attracts the same feelings. We can all attest to this force of nature from our own personal involvement with it. As a school teacher, I can easily transform grumpy, sleep-eyed students on a rainy morning into cheerful, happy students.

~*~

Discover a path to great wealth.

This article taken from Born to be Rich

Discover the Wealth that has always Belonged to you

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)