Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you. For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you.
–Luke 6:38
Dinner was finally ready.
Hungry, we sat down for the evening meal: ravioli, fresh-picked beans, and made-from-scratch biscuits made according to my grandmother’s recipe.
We said grace and dug into the food. But something wasn’t right. The biscuits were hard and grainy and — worst of all — extremely salty. Even the dogs wouldn’t eat them.
Though I had used the recipe with success for years, I had recently acquired a new set of measuring spoons. In my former set, the teaspoon was next to the tablespoon. The new set, however, had a “half-tablespoon” there instead.
When my recipe called for three teaspoons of baking soda, I’d grabbed the spoon next to the tablespoon and dumped three scoops — far too much! — into the batter, with memorably bad results.
Every baker knows that, for loaves of bread or cakes to turn out, the recipe must be followed precisely.
Jesus has given us the recipe for our happiness and salvation. If we are fair, generous, and kind, then we open ourselves up to great blessings God has in store for us.
If, however, we are selfish and stingy, that is a recipe for disaster, for God promises to use our attitudes toward others as a benchmark for His attitude to us.
Prayer
Kind and generous God, Thank You for all the blessings You have gifted me. Please help me to generously give of myself to others, so that I may be open to receiving even more blessings from You. In Your Son’s blessed name, I pray, Amen.
Reflection
How can I more generously share my love and my blessings with others?