Generosity Planning
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this section is to help you plan and give intentionally. As Christ followers, we are called to be a servant and give generously with our time, our money, our encouragement, and our love. This exercise is a seasonal reflection to plan your giving.
INSPIRATION:
When I was creating our first Horacio Printing planner, I was having an issue with how self-focused/selfish the planner was. I mean, most of the time when you are filling in a planner with dreams and events the main focus is me, me, me, right? I believe it is important to focus on your God-given purpose, but focusing on yourself is the complete opposite of the gospel.
In the last few days before we submitted our final designs to print, I was so inspired by a sermon at Hillsong Church NYC by guest speaker, Chris Hodges. I always knew it was important to be generous, but I never realized it was just as important to be intentional in how I plan my generosity. This scripture broke it down for me.
“Each of you should give what you have decided in your hearts to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:7
I always saw the "cheerful" part, but I didn't soak in the importance of "decided." Nor did I soak in the importance of not giving under "compulsion."
God blesses us to be a blessing to other people. Everything we have comes from him. There is so much more to "being generous" than just giving monetarily. We must be generous with our time, with our prayers and with our blessings. To be generous with our wallet and our time we have to create margin.
Margin is the space in our lives that we create to follow God’s calling. We need both to be able to help out those in need. If we never have a spare moment to help those around us, how can we respond to God's calling in our lives?
After hearing this amazing sermon, we created this special place in the planner where we can write down our intentions to serve others with our time, our heart, our words, and our actions.
We encourage you to use the planner to map out your generosity and to create margin. Our generosity planning section repeats fours times in the year so that you can check in and add new goals.
You are so loved.