" Tis Better to Give ..."
Recently I celebrated a “milestone” in my life, (the big six O). This inspired me to look back to what could be considered as other milestones across the years.
One of my earliest recollections was of reaching my seventh birthday and starting to receive one-shilling (5p) pocket money. Prior to this my father had taken me to the corner shop for sweets every Friday night, and mother had given me my collection for Sunday school each Sunday afternoon and again on Sunday night for church. But now, what freedom, I could go to the corner shop and choose my sweets by myself!
Freedom though, brings its own responsibilities and I then had to divide this new found wealth into portions. Three pence was allocated to the “inner man” i.e. sweets, six pence had to go to purchasing a savings stamp on Monday at school, and two pence for church and Sunday school collections and the remaining penny was donated to the Qua Iboe Mission. Their moneybox sat upon our mantle piece patiently awaiting the weekly contribution of my hot sticky little penny. This milestone meant that it was now my own responsibility to allocate this princely sum. Now it was me who proudly put my penny in the Sunday school collection, me who reached into my little purse on Sunday evening and helped support my church. It was also me who reached for the money box to add my small, but no doubt welcome sum to help children I would never know or see, to live a better quality of life.
It is our privilege and our responsibility to provide our children, not just with an education in the three R’s, not only with the principles, morals and virtues propounded by our Faith, but also to instil within them a sense of pride in themselves as a direct contributor towards the furtherance of our world embracing Faith. This sense of self worth is a bounty no parent or community can afford to ignore. The seemingly simple act of apportioning a small amount of their weekly bounty towards the administration of our National Assembly or the welfare and betterment of people they may never meet is liable to be a fundamental of how they live their lives.
The act of giving bestows upon the person a sense of belonging and helping to nurture the Faith. It imbues them with a sense of self worth that will stand them in good stead in dealing with other relationships and commitments throughout their lives. A small amount from those to whom it represents a lot, is greater than a large amount from those to whom it means little. To establish the regularity of commitment to the Faith, even if only by setting aside a tiny portion of their pocket money, means that they will grow to feel an integral part of the great community that is Bahá’í.
Recently, on seeing some photographs of the Seat of the Universal House of Justice a dear friend said: “When I was a young man I helped build that”. He recounted this with such a glow, such pride, that one might have been forgiven for thinking that he had actually cut the marble and laid the bricks himself. But no, he had scrimped and saved as a young boy to send money to the Arc Fund, giving him a sense of identity with this great edifice, just as great as those who had the bounty of actually labouring on the site.
It is better to commit a small amount regularly than to say: “what difference can it make”, it makes a great deal of difference to the Faith if a thousand people give £1, than if one person gives £1000.
Remember, this is our Faith, and we all feel honoured to belong to it, but the only way to go forward within the world and to spread the Faith is to support it not just with words and deeds, but to also commit ourselves financially, within the dictates of our income (even if it is only a shilling) to sparing what we can afford for the furtherance of our Faith.
We like to say “No amount too small” but we will try manfully not to decry the large amounts either.
Pat Craig, Treasurer