Giving and receiving are flip sides of the same coin. When more is given, there’s more to receive. When more is received, there’s more to be given. God has set this pattern in nature, and it plays out relationally, and wherever we seek to offer our strength to bring more life and goodness into the world.
For instance, there’s a reciprocal nature between the amount of milk a mother produces and the amount her baby needs. Milk production increases in proportion to how much the baby drinks. And milk production dries up as the baby is weaned.
Likewise, it’s easy for teachers, entertainers, entrepreneurs, and the like to continuingly pour themselves out for others when their gifts are being readily received. In fact, the more they’re received, the more they seem to have to give. But their creative energies are prone to dry up when their audience becomes indifferent to their offering.
In the same way, it’s much easier to keep showing up for our wife and kids when they openly receive the good we seek to bring. And we’re more likely to become resentful and eventually withhold our presence whenever we feel we’re not appreciated or fully welcomed.
While understandable, we must not become hardhearted through bitterness, but instead continue to do our part to be generous in the offering of ourselves. Our very bodies are designed to give, and this is our part to play even when it’s not fair. We must trust the process of how God has designed his world to work. Our job is to faithfully offer the seeds of life God has given us, and to rest in his grace to keep sowing even when the soil around us seems unyielding and hard.
In the end, enjoy the synergy of giving and receiving wherever you can. And don’t neglect your duty to keep offering yourself in love even when it seems others don’t care. God has created you as a giver and will give you the grace to continue.
