Giving for the sake of Giving.

Just a few days ago I decided to give Christmas gifts to the men who assist the students and drivers of the school during mornings and dismissal time.  It is a very chaotic and stressful time when parents with cars take their children to school, all of them arrive almost at the same time, and everyone wanting to drop their children by the gate.  And even though it is a "Christian school" (although technically speaking there is no such thing as a Christian school, just the people who run it), drivers will be drivers, each one wanting to be first, each parent wanting their child dropped as near to the gate as possible.  And so this causes traffic.
I see these men who help out in traffic and helping the kids with their bags, trying to move things quickly to help out the traffic, and I just felt like blessing them. Just a small token of my thanks to them for trying their best to help out.  We even have city Traffic Enforcers manning the streets, taking care of the traffic during that time.  I decided to give them a small blessing for Christmas.  Just a small gift showing my appreciation for their work.
6 of them, all in all.

A few days after I gave them the gifts, while dropping my son in school, I found myself waiting for them to acknowledge me, to recognize me as one of probably a number of other parents who gave them gifts.  Not that I was after any special treatment from them (although that would have been nice, hehe), I just found myself wanting to receive a wave of the hand, a smile, or maybe even a thank you again for the gift they received.
But none of them did.  Maybe it was just the hectic moment...or maybe they just forgot that I gave them a gift.  It's funny because I was actually expecting them to acknowledge me, to recognize me, for what I had done for them.  And for a split second (or probably more than that...a split minute maybe, hehe) I felt disappointed that they did not even remember that I gave them a gift.
But in the next second...a nudge from the Holy Spirit - was that my main motive for giving?
It reminded me of how our sin nature works.  And it reminded me of a teaching of our Lord during His sermon on the mount:

Matthew 6:2-4  So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  (3)  But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  (4)  so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Simply put...giving for a Christian is done to please the Master, not for others to honor us, or for us to receive a reward. We are not supposed to let our left hand know what our right hand gave.  Our giving is in secret, in our heart, and it is our heavenly Father who rewards us, and that is in secret also.

In other words, we give because we want to bless.  Period.

And yet our sinful nature longs for recognition, for acknowledgment, sometimes even for a reward.

But our real reward comes from God.  And it may not be a material reward...it may just be the joy in our hearts that God, by His grace, used us to bless others.  That's all.

Give to give.  Not to be recognized.  Not to receive.  It is Giving for the sake of giving, giving to bless.  

For God's glory, in our heart and in the heart of the person we blessed.

Thank God for His word, and His continually reminding us of how we should be living.