"...more blessed to give than to receive."

Acts 20:35 English Standard Version

³⁵ In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

This very well known Bible verse is used in so many contexts it had lost some impact for me until just recently.  Random Acts of Love (RAOL) decided to bless some local first responder organizations with an unannounced delivery of store-bought cookies taking some of our kids along to help out.

The expressions on the children’s faces when both first handed the unopened cookie packages and then again when they gave the packages to the civil servants, were ones of indescribable joy.  They were beyond excited to both be included, to belong, and also to give something so important to them to someone else, knowing how exciting it had to be to actually be given something as “valuable” as their very own package of unopened not “already been chewed” cookies.

The verse is often misquoted using "it's better to give than" instead of "more blessed."  Blessed is a spiritual term meaning the reward is spiritual growth not just the warm fuzzies.

I don’t know if the kids were too young to remember this particular act of love for very long.  But if they’re regularly immersed in such acts throughout life they’ll easily remember the blessed emotion of heightened joy and therefore long for more “giving” endorphins, after all, “He Himself said…”