The following is a transcript of today’s Facebook Live:
Namaste. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are whenever you’re watching this I am Gloria Grace Rand and I am here today, as always, or as often as I can be Monday through Friday to share with you today’s Daily Word from Unity and today’s word is GIVE.
And I love how it is the word give as we’re actually really coming into the season of giving. Halloween is this weekend and then here in the United States and then of course next month for those of us again is Thanksgiving and then Christmas the holidays, Hanukkah,
Kwanzaa, whatever you celebrate, so I just think it’s good that we’re starting off already with the word give so the affirmation is “I give freely and with love.”
Daily Word: Give
And the reading starts off:
Spiritual leaders teach the importance of giving, helping the underserved, and encouraging the disheartened. It is not the measurable quantity of what I give, but the spirit with which I give that matters most.
The love I feel multiplies my giving, and it expands in ever-widening circles of blessings. My gifts may inspire the recipient to give something as simple as a smile, a kind word of encouragement, or a thoughtful gesture.
My gifts return to bless my life in unexpected ways. I give with love with no expectation of return from the recipient. I broaden my perspective, mindful that the good I share will return to me at the perfect time in the perfect way.
And then, as usual there’s a scripture reading this is from Luke 21:3-4.
He said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”
And do you know that reading, for those of you who are listening and are really Bible scholars I know I’ve heard this story many times in my Gospel when I went to Catholic Church. But it’s really telling and it was really, I think, Jesus was really trying to demonstrate the importance of giving from the heart. This woman, she had barely anything and yet, while she was a poor widow she actually contributed more because she gave from, really what she barely had, as opposed to… I know in the story, they were talking about like, I think maybe some of the…
Oh, I don’t even… now the word is escaping me at the moment, but you know… Pharisees is coming to mind, but I’m not sure that’s correct. But I would say, people who are rich, you know they could give freely, because they had plenty to spare, and so it was easy for them.
But and not but… and I would say is that it was easy for them, so they didn’t really give it much thought; it wasn’t a sacrifice. And it really meant nothing to them so while it might have helped whoever was the recipient of it, it could have gone further.
And when we can give, either giving from a place where you don’t have that much to give, or we are just giving with, as it says here, “no expectation of return from the recipient” – then that really is the best gift that we can give because we are really demonstrating our love for our fellow man or woman in this world, our fellow human being. And that’s really, really, really, what the spirit of giving us all about and I think that’s important to think about, as I said, as we are moving into this time of year, the end of the year, where we start, we start really thinking about what it is that we want to do for our loved one.
And then there’s so many people who the holidays, this time of year is… it’s tough for them for any number of reasons. It could be that they’ve maybe recently lost a loved one or maybe it’s an anniversary now of losing a loved one, and so the holidays are a sad time for them. I know I’ve been there. The first year after my sister passed and she transitioned just a couple days after Christmas, that was a tough time. And we actually, my sister in law invited us to spend Christmas with her in Texas, and I gratefully accepted that invitation, because I didn’t really want to be alone with just my immediate family. I really wanted to be surrounded by people who are happy, enjoying the holidays and having a good time and it helped. It helped a lot. I was still sad but it helped tremendously.
The other thing that you know, especially at this time of year, you’ll start maybe getting requests in the mail from pantries, organizations that are serving the homeless and people who are hungry, and so this is a time of year when, especially if you can find it in your heart to be able to give generously and to help those in need, it will come back to you. Maybe not right away, but it will come back to you some time perhaps when you’re in need and then someone will show you some kindness and help you out.
Another thing, this time of year, well even this whole past year and a half now going almost on to two years, a lot of people have lost their jobs; they’ve had to or maybe the businesses didn’t survive because of the pandemic and so again they’ve been struggling. So many entertainers, people, actors and musicians, even people like magicians. I had a mentalist on my podcast recently. He had to pivot and start doing, instead of doing live shows performing he had to perform on Zoom and I’m sure it was Okay, but certainly not as lucrative as it was when he would be performing in Las Vegas, for instance.
And so again there’s people… I know Broadway is slowly coming back now but I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing it’s still not like what it was before, back in 2019 when things were more normal, as they say. So if you know someone who is struggling right now, or is in need, lend them a helping hand and see what you can do to help and carry this through past the holidays, because we can do this at any time, we can do this right now, today.
A simple thing as giving someone a smile; maybe you go to the grocery store and you pass someone or you’re… okay, you might have your mask on, so they might not be able to see your smile, but you could still smile behind your mask and they can probably tell in your eyes that you’re smiling. Because I don’t know if you can see that okay, here’s what my eyes look like now, when I’m not smiling, and then, when I smile they kind of shrink up a little bit, and so you can see that there is a change in my expression, even if my mouth was covered with those darn masks. And I still don’t understand why no one has invented a see-through mask so that people can see our mouths. Somebody out there, I know I swear I saw them last year, but I don’t know why they haven’t caught on. If we’re going to wear masks, let’s let people see our faces, we could still be safe! Anyway, I digress, let’s get back to giving okay.
What else do I want to talk about oh yeah. One sentence in here that talks about that, it says the love I feel multiplies by giving, multiplies my giving and it expands in ever widening circles of blessings. So again, and then it says, my gifts return to bless my life in unexpected ways. So the more that we can give with a loving heart, then it just multiplies, what you give out multiplies and then it comes back to you.
I think it says even somewhere i’ve heard someone say something like 1000 fold or something or seven times seven I don’t know I’m not a scripture expert. But if somebody out there is, correct me or put in the comments something about this, but I think this again just keep in mind today give freely and with love. Give freely and do it with love in your heart and not only will you bless the person that you’re giving to, you will receive blessings back.
Okay, I think that’s going to do it for me today so thank you for watching and for listening to these. I hope you enjoy them. I’d love some comments, let me know for sure.
If you are enjoying these, it would be great to know and, as I said, also check out my podcast. I also have some really great, a lot of great interviews with some amazing people on there so go to Live. Love. Engage., you can find it on your podcast platforms you’ll check it out there, and until tomorrow… I should be back here tomorrow… go out today and live fully, love deeply, and engage authentically.
