Thoughts on Sharing

True sharing is not a part of human nature, it has to be learned.

My mother has a cute little black and tan dachshund-terrier mix named Bella Sera. Bella (or Berra as she sometimes gets called), is a hyperactive jumping-licking-whining-tug of war player. The minute you walk in the front door, she will attack you from the back of the couch with kisses and nibbles. If you make the mistake of paying attention to my dog (Oscar) first, she will then pummel you with leaps and whine like you are killing her. She has three beds, and each bed is full of stuffed (and some no longer stuffed) toys and bones. Those are her toys. She doesn't like sharing them with Oscar, or with anyone else... That is, she doesn't like sharing them with anyone unless you have something she wants.

Case in point...

Saturday, I made peanut butter cookies. I gave one to my niece, Avie, when she and her mother came over to run an errand. Bella took one look at that cookie and decided that she had to have one as well. When I didn't get up and go get one for Bella, she decided to steal Avie's cookie instead. When that didn't work, Bella galloped over to her living room bed, and pulled out her little stuffed shoe toy, and raced back to Avie's seat. Bella then placed the little shoe at the feet of Avie, and barked. Bella's signal that she wants to play, or trade. When Avie ignored her, she jumped up beside Avie in the chair, and shoved her little shoe in Avie's lap. Then the dog cocked her head and let out a garbled, half whined, "Ry Ruff Ru!"

Had Avie been paying attention to anything but her cookie, she would have realized what a rare treat she had been given. The dog that hides all her toys when my niece comes for a visit, was sharing her toy with Avie... Granted, she was sharing because Avie had something that she wanted, but she was sharing none the less...

Some of us would probably believe that Bella's idea of sharing is what true sharing is. We would like to believe that sharing really is about "give and take", but its not. Sharing is about caring. Sharing is about self sacrifice. Its about giving your last dime to someone who has nothing and not begrudging them the gift. Sharing is letting someone borrow your things with no strings attached.

God didn't teach Bella's idea of sharing in His Word. Instead, God taught us to love our neighbor as if our neighbor was our self. He taught the Ultimate self sacrifice in dying for us on the cross of Calvary, and his Apostles reiterated it through their writings and epistles that make up the New Testament in our Bibles.

Ah! But what if you don't have enough to share? That is what we tell ourselves, right? I don't have enough to share with anyone... Well, half of a little is still more than none. The little boy who gave up his small lunch to the disciples didn't have much either, but he was willing to give what he could. Jesus multiplied that tiny meal and made a feast, but it would not have happened if that boy had not been willing to share in the first place.

Sharing doesn't have to involve a physical object either. So you don't have money, and you don't have food, that doesn't mean you still cannot share. You have in your grasp a very important thing, something that may never be granted again... Time. Sharing your time is as good a thing as sharing a dime. You don't believe me? Ask those men and women who live in the hospitals and nursing homes in our world whether time matters at all. Ask the kids who don't have parents to share their daily experiences with if time matters. I bet you anything that they will tell you time does matter. You can see it in their faces each time you come for a visit, or offer to tutor someone in school.

One last thing...


What you share, and how you share it affects how the world sees the light of Jesus in you. People are watching you. They are looking at your life and how you act. They will use your failures as an excuse not to live for God, and they will use your successes as a reason to trust in God. So think on it a bit... Are you willing to share?

Matthew 5

¹³Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

¹⁴Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

¹⁵Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

¹⁶Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.


⁴²Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

⁴³Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

⁴⁴But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

⁴⁵That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

⁴⁶For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

⁴⁷And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?