Willing To Share

By Donna Wittlif

    "Charge them that are rich in this world...that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate" (I Timothy 6: 17, 18).
    My son recently sent us a video of our grandson who is two and a half years old. My son and his wife were trying to get Kai to share the little bag of candy they had given him. Kai, our grandson, said, "It's mine." He shook his head and pushed his mother's hand away when she asked for some.
    That's how many of us were at Kai's age. We did not like to share. Hopefully, selfishness is something we have outgrown. When Paul writes to Timothy that we should be "willing to communicate," he does not mean we should be willing to talk. Paul wants us to share.
    Christians have so much. Paul tells Timothy, "God gives us richly all things to enjoy." God gives us spiritual riches and blessings that we don't deserve. But Christians living in the United States have far more than spiritual blessings. We are blessed materially way beyond most Christians living in other countries.
    So do we thank God for His care and His goodness? If so, that is good. We ought to, need to. But do we just go happily on our way, thanking God, and forgetting the needs of others? Is that all God expects of us? No. Paul says we should do good and be rich in good works. That means being willing to share. Those who share are "laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on the life which is life indeed" (I Timothy 6:20).

- Donna Richmond Wittlif, the founder and first editor of BulletinGold, lives in Denver, CO. Donna is also a writer of fiction. Her novels, World Eternal: Promises and World Eternal: Proselytes, and World Eternal: Perils are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other book outlets. For more information visit her website. http://www.donnarwittlif.com/