Monday, May 19, 2014

The Art of Giving

What do you think when you hear about the word of 'giving'? Most of us think that giving is about giving something, either it is money or other things. Or we can say every giving has a purpose in order to expect someone does something as in return or not. For several examples: we give a special gift to our children when they celebrate their birthday. It can be a cake, a card, a small gift or having dinner outside, etc with a purpose, of course to make them happy and show that we care and love them.

Do you ever do the volunteer? Do you think the 'volunteer' action is a part of giving?

If I answer this question, my answer is "Yes". When someone is doing the volunteer work, he is giving his energy, his attention, etc to do something that he is doing. We can take several examples, volunteer at the church community, volunteer at the school program, etc.

Since December 2006, I have been registered as a Citizen Journalism at Kabarindonesia.com, an Online Indonesian News. I have contributed my thoughts, my opinions, my devotional stories, my knowledge, etc, through my writings. For me, this 'writing' action can be said as 'giving'. It means I give my 'writings' to the readers without anything in return (honorarium). When I got the comments saying they were inspired by my writings, this statement was more than enough to make me so happy. It means I have contributed the useful things to the readers.

Recently, I also do the different way in giving. One of my dreams, I really want to contribute every single of my published stuff to them who are in need. What are they?

1. My first published e-book, What Prayers does Mommy Teach Me, I dedicate to Unreached Children Program. This program has reached the Asian countries and Indonesia has been in their list. I have been couple years as one of their supporters. Now, I would like to do more through one of my creations.

2. My first classic calender 2009, BEAUTIFUL GARDEN in bloom is dedicated to my son, William. He has cystic fibrosis and has been struggling since he was child. He is a very smart and strong young man and I'm so proud of him. Knowing the first time that he has had this chronic disease, I have supported him through my daily prayers. The information I ever heard from my husband that he was almost die when he was 14 years old, this gave me tears on my eyes. He said that maybe through my prayers, God will give him the longer life. When I heard again he said that to me, I really could not stop my tears.

Yes, this is one of creations I dedicate lovely to him. All the revenues of every single of sold calender, I will contribute to Cystic Fibrosis Research. How do I get the revenue? I get 30% discount from the publisher during this holiday season and all of the discount I get will be contributed to Cystic Fibrosis Research. Its price is included Tax, shipping and handling, and small cost for Paypal administration.

3. My second published e-book, Dancing in My World, I dedicate it to the cancer research program. The motive why I support this program, because the people who I know well have been died because of the cancer. My relative, Tante Ditje (alm), who ever supported me several years when I was in university. She passed away last year because of breast cancer; my Vocal Group friend in Indoensia, Linda Sigar (alm) who passed away in April this year. She had ovarian cancer; Om Yossey (alm), my best friend's father had passed away because of the lung cancer; my mother in law who I never see her before. My husband told me that she also passed away because of a cancer. Special to my sister in law, Cathy who has been cured from the ovarian cancer, I am so very happy for her. Thank God!

I'm sure every small donation is made will be very useful to support this research. More donations they get, more people in the world will be saved.

The examples above are the variety of how we can give something' to other person, our community, other people, foundations who are in need.

Actually, to be a giver, we don't need to do the big things to show that we act as a giver. We can do every simple thing in our life in giving especially to our family member, our attention, our love, etc.

Art of giving is an art of the action. We can express that we care to the others from our action in giving, we can express that we love to the others from our action in giving through our own ways.

Actually, God has showed us about this. He gave His Son to be born in the world and died to save the world. He showed His love to us with this great action. He has taught us an Art of Giving, showing His greatest love that many people haven't known yet. As the receivers who get this Great Gift freely, we should know how we act. A good receiver knows how to act to bring this Great Gift to other person.

The art of giving, shows that there are many kinds of way we can express a word of 'love', 'care' from our actions in giving.(*)


Published at Helium, December 9, 2008

No comments:

Post a Comment