Cheerful Giving

by Jennifer Hockenbery

by Jennifer Hockenbery

I just had a birthday. My youngest daughter made me a delicious cake—with many layers. There was cake, and cheesecake, and frosting, and strawberries. The cake took her hours to make, and this was on top of a full day’s work and a wedding cake that she was starting to bake for her brother the following weekend. Through all this labor and all this work—she was happy. It gave her joy to give this gift.

It reminded me of when she was little and was so excited to give me a present for a birthday or Mother’s Day. Children LOVE to give presents—they are so excited to create something and give it to someone they love. Most of us know that same joy. The fun before a friend’s birthday or picking out an anniversary present and the excitement as our friend or spouse opens the gift. This is what cheerful giving looks like and feels like.

There are many women who get this same joyful feeling as they give to Women of the ELCA—thinking about the things that we can do together to serve each other, the society, our church, the world. They are sharing about this feeling on our Thursday Facebook page with videos.

If you would like to share a video about the feeling of cheerful giving, we would love to highlight it. Think about creative ways to share your feelings about giving and about what Women of the ELCA means to you.

We are in a season of fundraising. Women of the ELCA has a budget deficit that we need to close, and we are starting a mini-campaign to fill the gap of $250,000 in the next six months.  As we go into this mini-campaign, let us remember the wise advice of Martin Luther when he was preaching on worry and avarice.  Martin tells his parishioners not to worry. That God gives us what we need in each season, even as God gives fine clothing to the flowers in the field. Martin laughs that too often we worry rather than work, that we want more than we give, that we fail to trust God and we curtail our own joy.

In this way, giving is not about duty but about freedom. Cheerful giving is about recapturing the joy of baking a cake for a loved one or wrapping a special gift for a lover. Cheerful giving is about knowing our own worth and sharing it with others.

Dr. Jennifer Hockenbery is interim executive director for Women of the ELCA and editor of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics.