August 25, 2025 • 13 mins
I am constantly experiencing God the Father's love and generosity. How do I share that with those around me?
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(00:00):
Welcome to Catholic money talk,where we talk about all things
money and finance, and we try todo it through a lens of being
Catholic, where our ultimategoal is to one day be in Heaven
with the Lord. I am your host.
Paul Scarfone, thank you forbeing here today. Paul.
(00:24):
You today, I would like to talkabout God's generosity. But
before we do that, let's say aprayer in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the HolySpirit. Amen, Heavenly Father,
we thank you for this day, weask You for all the grace and
wisdom that we need to face thechallenges or the circumstances
that we find ourselves in. Weknow that you love us and that
(00:45):
you have a great plan for us,allow us to yield to your Holy
Spirit. We ask all this in Jesusname, amen, in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of theHoly Spirit, Amen. So recently,
I feel like I've been learningsome new elements of God's
generosity and how I can try tobetter follow his example. Now
(01:08):
I'm going to share a personalstory that is very recent. But
first, let me start by givingyou a little bit of a of
context. So a few months ago, myson, Josh, 17 years old. He got
his driver's license. He hadalso purchased his own car, and
we talked, and I had told himthat he's responsible for the
(01:30):
gas, minor repairs in theupkeep, and I told him, if there
was a major expense for the car,that we could discuss it well.
So that was the context. Moveall up to last week. Last week,
my wife and I went out on datenight. We try to do that every
week, when we got home, we paidthe kids for babysitting and for
(01:51):
us babysitting when we go out.
It's one of those chores that wetold the older kids they get
paid for. And in our budget, wepay for babysitting at $10 per
hour, as long as when we gethome, the little guys have been
put to bed in the dinner dishes.
They've all been cleaned up. Sowe got home, I asked my older
kids who babysat? They answeredthat they both did. My 17 year
(02:14):
old son and my 15 year olddaughter. So I split the
babysitting money. We're out forthree hours, so that's $30 of
babysitting. So $15 each. My sonlooked at it and said, can I get
more money for gas? I looked athim and said, is, is that a
thing? Have I asked you to runerrands for me that has used up
gas in your car? He said, No,but it almost cost $50 to fill
(02:36):
up the tank. And in my brain, Iwas thinking, dude, your gas
money. It's on the floor of yourcloset in sneakers, and it's on
the wall in your room in hats.
He likes shoes and hats, and hespent, I mean, a good amount of
money on those. And I wasthinking, well, that's where
your gas money is. Now, I didn'tsay this out loud, but I was
(02:56):
thinking it. What I did say outloud was no, because I want him
to learn that there areopportunity costs that we spend
money, like on shoes and hats,we have less to spend on things
like gas when we need it. Gas isa need. Shoes and hats are want.
And I looked at my wife, whowas, you know, in the kitchen.
(03:17):
This conversation was in thekitchen. She was present to it.
I looked her and said, Am I in aline? Is that a thing that we're
just going to give him gas moneywhen he wants it? I don't
remember saying that. She said,No, we never told him we're
going to give him gas moneyunless we ask him to do a bunch
of, you know, errands runningaround for us. So I felt
justified in my response to him.
(03:40):
Now let me go backwards a littlebit. A day earlier, he had
brought another item to me. Wehave taught our kids to tithe.
It's something Taryn and I do.
It's what we firmly believe theLord is calling us to and tithe.
That is to give 10% of ourincome to the Lord and His work.
So my son Josh, he worked allsummer at various jobs, and he
(04:01):
had told me early in the summerthat he didn't want to just
give, you know, 1020, or $30 aweek in the collection basket at
church, but rather, he wanted tosave up his tithe into a bigger
amount and to give it somewherewhere he felt the Lord calling
him to give it. So this dayearlier, he had approached me
and asked me how he could givehis tithe to his youth group. He
(04:23):
had $330 that he had saved up inhis tithe envelope from the
summer. He told me he felt theLord had put on his heart to
give it to his youth group. Itold him, that was awesome, and
I agreed. And I told him, andI'm very proud of him. I mean,
it's one of the reasons I'msharing this here on the podcast
as well. He is a great youngman. And then I was thinking
(04:46):
recently, he has just reallybeen constantly asking how he
can help at home, coming up tome multiple times a day and
asking dad, how can I help? Dad,is there anything you'd like me?
He do, and other times he justjumps in, even without being
asked. He's been playing andengaging his two younger
brothers regularly, andespecially at times when he
(05:09):
notices that they're being crazyor looking for attention. I
mean, the other night, he tookthem to the field next to our
house to play soccer. It wasright after dinner. They were
being a little crazy. Joshnoticed that, and he decided to
help get them out of the wayfrom the others that were
cleaning up from dinner. And hetook him next door to the field
to play soccer. It was a hugehelp. So let me just kind of
(05:30):
recap. He's been super helpful.
He's trying to follow thepromptings of the Lord and His
generosity. And I told him no toextra gas money, because I want
him to learn how to manage hismoney better. So just last week,
last Friday morning, in myprayer, I had a sense from the
(05:52):
Lord, and the Lord asked me, DoI want Josh to do, what I want
him to do, or do I want Josh todo what the Lord wants him to
do? Wow. That hit me reallyhard. I mean, I talk about us
following the Lord's plan allthe time, and here I am probably
(06:12):
trying to get my son to followmy plan instead of the Lord's
plan maybe. So I startedpraying, am I getting in the way
or somehow not cooperating withwhat the Lord is trying to do
with Josh. He's being a greatson. He's growing into a young
man, and I'm incredibly proud ofhim. Am I loving him as much as
(06:34):
I possibly can, or am I makingit more difficult for him to
experience love? I finished myprayer and immediately grabbed
his car keys, drove his car tothe gas station and filled it up
with gas for him. When I gothome, my wife looked at me and
said, Where'd you go? I toldher, I went and filled up Josh's
car with gas. She said, that'sgreat. I was going to tell you I
(06:55):
thought you should do that. Andimmediately I was like, No, this
was not your idea. It was myidea. And that hit me, that's my
pride coming out. I mean, reallyit was God's idea. See, he
showed me that I'm called tolove and be generous without
making deals. God fills up mygas tank every day, whether I
(07:16):
deserve it or not, and I cantell you I never deserve it.
Just this past Sunday, thehomily at mass, it just
reinforced and reiterated what Ihad heard. You know, within the
Gospel reading the workers inthe vineyard, the vineyard owner
asked the workers who had workedall day, are you jealous?
Because I am generous. The Lordis so generous to us constantly,
(07:40):
and we have never, and we cannever earn any of it. It is
immeasurable the amount of loveand grace that He pours about,
that he pours out upon usfreely, and then He commands us
love one another as I have lovedyou. The prior week, Sunday
gospel had a similar messagewhere the master forgave the
(08:00):
incredibly large debt from theone servant, forgave it out of
mercy and love, and then thatsame servant leaves, sees a
fellow servant who owed him amuch lesser amount, and throws
him into prison until he paid itback. He did not follow the
example of his master. Am Igoing to follow the example of
(08:20):
my master. Am I going to followthe example of Jesus? It is
human nature for us to want tomake deals. If you do this, I'll
do that right. But the Lorddoesn't make deals like that at
all. He gives us everythingfreely, and then we get to
respond to him by eitherrejecting Him or embracing Him.
(08:41):
And when we reject the Lord, heactually he honors our free will
and still continues torelentlessly pour out His grace
and mercy and constantly callsus to return to him. I mean, I
pray I can follow the example ofGod's generosity in the way I
love my wife and the way I lovemy children and the way I love
(09:03):
my parents and my siblings, andthe way I love my friends and
all of those that the Lord putsin my life. So my encouragement
today is, who in your life canyou show more love to? Where can
you increase your generosity? Doyou have conditions that people
need to meet before you showthem love or mercy. Sometimes we
(09:25):
need to first list and identifyall the areas that we are
grateful to the Lord for hisgenerosity. And believe me, for
all of us, regardless of oursituation, there are numerous
ways where the Lord has pouredout His love and mercy. So let's
list those areas where Lord hasblessed us. Maybe it is with
your spouse, your kids or yourfamily. Maybe it's with your
(09:49):
home, your job or a closefriend. Do we have gratitude for
the sacraments, for theopportunity to go to confession
and receive reconciliation? Am Igrateful for God? The Father
sending His Son Jesus to die forme and for redeeming me and all
of us and adopting us all as hissons and daughters. Are we
grateful for the opportunity toreceive his body and blood in
(10:11):
the Eucharist? When we see allthe areas where the Lord has
blessed us, it should fill uswith gratitude, and should then
overflow from our hearts toothers.
This is one of those areas wherethe Lord invites us to cooperate
in his plan, to follow hisexample of generosity. When I
(10:32):
filled up Josh's car with gas,it encourages him and it
reinforces the truth, the truththat the Lord will bless His
faithfulness. He'll bless himconstantly, but a particular way
we see it when we're trying tobe faithful to the Lord, we more
clearly see the way he blessesus. I did not bless Josh by
filling his tank. The Lord did.
He used me to do it, and I needto be humble and joyful to be
(10:56):
used as an instrument for theLord to bless others. It is the
Spirit of the Lord, alive andactive that through our humility
and yielding to Him, that Heuses us to accomplish the work
that he is about. We must make adecision to say to the Lord, use
me and then be careful, becausehe shows up in ways that we
(11:16):
can't even imagine. That shortprayer, those two words, it's
very powerful, but don't pray itunless you are ready. Because
the Lord, he usually answersthat prayer. He always answers
that prayer. Use me. And ifyou're reluctant to pray, that's
your prayer. I invite you totake a look at your life. Take a
look at your spirit. You mightneed to make some space in your
(11:40):
life to be able to say thatprayer, but when you do and the
Lord shows up, I promise youwill have an awesome life that
is full of joy because you areloving and serving others. I
need to remember to pray thisconstantly, because my human
nature wants to be selfish. Iwant to be comfortable, but when
I look at the cross and I seewhat true love looks like, I'm
(12:03):
reminded of what the Lord said,Love one another as I have loved
you. So if you're ready, praywith me now, Heavenly Father, I
am grateful for all the waysthat you love and bless me.
Thank you for your constantgenerosity towards me. I am so
grateful that your mercy isbigger, oceans bigger than all
(12:27):
of my sins. Please help me tolove more. Help me to share your
love with others. Use me. Use meas an instrument of your love
and mercy so that others maycome to experience you through
me. May I be a light directingothers to you. Thank you for the
awesome invitation to cooperatewith your plan. Please give me
(12:50):
the strength to be courageous tofollow the promptings of Your
Holy Spirit in my life. Pleasegive me the humility I need to
yield to your spirit. We ask allthis through your holy name.
Amen.
Well, that is allI have for today. I really hope
(13:10):
this was helpful. Please use thelink in the podcast description
to reach out to me if you haveany questions, or if there's any
other way I could serve you.
Thank you for joining me today.
God bless Thank you forlistening to Catholic money
talk. I hope you join us againnext time, please click
Subscribe on your podcast app toget notified of new episodes.
(13:31):
God bless you and have a greatday. You. School. I'm.
Welcome to Catholic money talk,where we talk about all things
money and finance, and we try todo it through a lens of being
Catholic, where our ultimategoal is to one day be in Heaven
with the Lord. I am your host.
Paul Scarfone, thank you forbeing here today. Paul.
(00:24):
You today, I would like to talkabout God's generosity. But
before we do that, let's say aprayer in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the HolySpirit. Amen, Heavenly Father,
we thank you for this day, weask You for all the grace and
wisdom that we need to face thechallenges or the circumstances
that we find ourselves in. Weknow that you love us and that
(00:45):
you have a great plan for us,allow us to yield to your Holy
Spirit. We ask all this in Jesusname, amen, in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of theHoly Spirit, Amen. So recently,
I feel like I've been learningsome new elements of God's
generosity and how I can try tobetter follow his example. Now
(01:08):
I'm going to share a personalstory that is very recent. But
first, let me start by givingyou a little bit of a of
context. So a few months ago, myson, Josh, 17 years old. He got
his driver's license. He hadalso purchased his own car, and
we talked, and I had told himthat he's responsible for the
(01:30):
gas, minor repairs in theupkeep, and I told him, if there
was a major expense for the car,that we could discuss it well.
So that was the context. Moveall up to last week. Last week,
my wife and I went out on datenight. We try to do that every
week, when we got home, we paidthe kids for babysitting and for
(01:51):
us babysitting when we go out.
It's one of those chores that wetold the older kids they get
paid for. And in our budget, wepay for babysitting at $10 per
hour, as long as when we gethome, the little guys have been
put to bed in the dinner dishes.
They've all been cleaned up. Sowe got home, I asked my older
kids who babysat? They answeredthat they both did. My 17 year
(02:14):
old son and my 15 year olddaughter. So I split the
babysitting money. We're out forthree hours, so that's $30 of
babysitting. So $15 each. My sonlooked at it and said, can I get
more money for gas? I looked athim and said, is, is that a
thing? Have I asked you to runerrands for me that has used up
gas in your car? He said, No,but it almost cost $50 to fill
(02:36):
up the tank. And in my brain, Iwas thinking, dude, your gas
money. It's on the floor of yourcloset in sneakers, and it's on
the wall in your room in hats.
He likes shoes and hats, and hespent, I mean, a good amount of
money on those. And I wasthinking, well, that's where
your gas money is. Now, I didn'tsay this out loud, but I was
(02:56):
thinking it. What I did say outloud was no, because I want him
to learn that there areopportunity costs that we spend
money, like on shoes and hats,we have less to spend on things
like gas when we need it. Gas isa need. Shoes and hats are want.
And I looked at my wife, whowas, you know, in the kitchen.
(03:17):
This conversation was in thekitchen. She was present to it.
I looked her and said, Am I in aline? Is that a thing that we're
just going to give him gas moneywhen he wants it? I don't
remember saying that. She said,No, we never told him we're
going to give him gas moneyunless we ask him to do a bunch
of, you know, errands runningaround for us. So I felt
justified in my response to him.
(03:40):
Now let me go backwards a littlebit. A day earlier, he had
brought another item to me. Wehave taught our kids to tithe.
It's something Taryn and I do.
It's what we firmly believe theLord is calling us to and tithe.
That is to give 10% of ourincome to the Lord and His work.
So my son Josh, he worked allsummer at various jobs, and he
(04:01):
had told me early in the summerthat he didn't want to just
give, you know, 1020, or $30 aweek in the collection basket at
church, but rather, he wanted tosave up his tithe into a bigger
amount and to give it somewherewhere he felt the Lord calling
him to give it. So this dayearlier, he had approached me
and asked me how he could givehis tithe to his youth group. He
(04:23):
had $330 that he had saved up inhis tithe envelope from the
summer. He told me he felt theLord had put on his heart to
give it to his youth group. Itold him, that was awesome, and
I agreed. And I told him, andI'm very proud of him. I mean,
it's one of the reasons I'msharing this here on the podcast
as well. He is a great youngman. And then I was thinking
(04:46):
recently, he has just reallybeen constantly asking how he
can help at home, coming up tome multiple times a day and
asking dad, how can I help? Dad,is there anything you'd like me?
He do, and other times he justjumps in, even without being
asked. He's been playing andengaging his two younger
brothers regularly, andespecially at times when he
(05:09):
notices that they're being crazyor looking for attention. I
mean, the other night, he tookthem to the field next to our
house to play soccer. It wasright after dinner. They were
being a little crazy. Joshnoticed that, and he decided to
help get them out of the wayfrom the others that were
cleaning up from dinner. And hetook him next door to the field
to play soccer. It was a hugehelp. So let me just kind of
(05:30):
recap. He's been super helpful.
He's trying to follow thepromptings of the Lord and His
generosity. And I told him no toextra gas money, because I want
him to learn how to manage hismoney better. So just last week,
last Friday morning, in myprayer, I had a sense from the
(05:52):
Lord, and the Lord asked me, DoI want Josh to do, what I want
him to do, or do I want Josh todo what the Lord wants him to
do? Wow. That hit me reallyhard. I mean, I talk about us
following the Lord's plan allthe time, and here I am probably
(06:12):
trying to get my son to followmy plan instead of the Lord's
plan maybe. So I startedpraying, am I getting in the way
or somehow not cooperating withwhat the Lord is trying to do
with Josh. He's being a greatson. He's growing into a young
man, and I'm incredibly proud ofhim. Am I loving him as much as
(06:34):
I possibly can, or am I makingit more difficult for him to
experience love? I finished myprayer and immediately grabbed
his car keys, drove his car tothe gas station and filled it up
with gas for him. When I gothome, my wife looked at me and
said, Where'd you go? I toldher, I went and filled up Josh's
car with gas. She said, that'sgreat. I was going to tell you I
(06:55):
thought you should do that. Andimmediately I was like, No, this
was not your idea. It was myidea. And that hit me, that's my
pride coming out. I mean, reallyit was God's idea. See, he
showed me that I'm called tolove and be generous without
making deals. God fills up mygas tank every day, whether I
(07:16):
deserve it or not, and I cantell you I never deserve it.
Just this past Sunday, thehomily at mass, it just
reinforced and reiterated what Ihad heard. You know, within the
Gospel reading the workers inthe vineyard, the vineyard owner
asked the workers who had workedall day, are you jealous?
Because I am generous. The Lordis so generous to us constantly,
(07:40):
and we have never, and we cannever earn any of it. It is
immeasurable the amount of loveand grace that He pours about,
that he pours out upon usfreely, and then He commands us
love one another as I have lovedyou. The prior week, Sunday
gospel had a similar messagewhere the master forgave the
(08:00):
incredibly large debt from theone servant, forgave it out of
mercy and love, and then thatsame servant leaves, sees a
fellow servant who owed him amuch lesser amount, and throws
him into prison until he paid itback. He did not follow the
example of his master. Am Igoing to follow the example of
(08:20):
my master. Am I going to followthe example of Jesus? It is
human nature for us to want tomake deals. If you do this, I'll
do that right. But the Lorddoesn't make deals like that at
all. He gives us everythingfreely, and then we get to
respond to him by eitherrejecting Him or embracing Him.
(08:41):
And when we reject the Lord, heactually he honors our free will
and still continues torelentlessly pour out His grace
and mercy and constantly callsus to return to him. I mean, I
pray I can follow the example ofGod's generosity in the way I
love my wife and the way I lovemy children and the way I love
(09:03):
my parents and my siblings, andthe way I love my friends and
all of those that the Lord putsin my life. So my encouragement
today is, who in your life canyou show more love to? Where can
you increase your generosity? Doyou have conditions that people
need to meet before you showthem love or mercy. Sometimes we
(09:25):
need to first list and identifyall the areas that we are
grateful to the Lord for hisgenerosity. And believe me, for
all of us, regardless of oursituation, there are numerous
ways where the Lord has pouredout His love and mercy. So let's
list those areas where Lord hasblessed us. Maybe it is with
your spouse, your kids or yourfamily. Maybe it's with your
(09:49):
home, your job or a closefriend. Do we have gratitude for
the sacraments, for theopportunity to go to confession
and receive reconciliation? Am Igrateful for God? The Father
sending His Son Jesus to die forme and for redeeming me and all
of us and adopting us all as hissons and daughters. Are we
grateful for the opportunity toreceive his body and blood in
(10:11):
the Eucharist? When we see allthe areas where the Lord has
blessed us, it should fill uswith gratitude, and should then
overflow from our hearts toothers.
This is one of those areas wherethe Lord invites us to cooperate
in his plan, to follow hisexample of generosity. When I
(10:32):
filled up Josh's car with gas,it encourages him and it
reinforces the truth, the truththat the Lord will bless His
faithfulness. He'll bless himconstantly, but a particular way
we see it when we're trying tobe faithful to the Lord, we more
clearly see the way he blessesus. I did not bless Josh by
filling his tank. The Lord did.
He used me to do it, and I needto be humble and joyful to be
(10:56):
used as an instrument for theLord to bless others. It is the
Spirit of the Lord, alive andactive that through our humility
and yielding to Him, that Heuses us to accomplish the work
that he is about. We must make adecision to say to the Lord, use
me and then be careful, becausehe shows up in ways that we
(11:16):
can't even imagine. That shortprayer, those two words, it's
very powerful, but don't pray itunless you are ready. Because
the Lord, he usually answersthat prayer. He always answers
that prayer. Use me. And ifyou're reluctant to pray, that's
your prayer. I invite you totake a look at your life. Take a
look at your spirit. You mightneed to make some space in your
(11:40):
life to be able to say thatprayer, but when you do and the
Lord shows up, I promise youwill have an awesome life that
is full of joy because you areloving and serving others. I
need to remember to pray thisconstantly, because my human
nature wants to be selfish. Iwant to be comfortable, but when
I look at the cross and I seewhat true love looks like, I'm
(12:03):
reminded of what the Lord said,Love one another as I have loved
you. So if you're ready, praywith me now, Heavenly Father, I
am grateful for all the waysthat you love and bless me.
Thank you for your constantgenerosity towards me. I am so
grateful that your mercy isbigger, oceans bigger than all
(12:27):
of my sins. Please help me tolove more. Help me to share your
love with others. Use me. Use meas an instrument of your love
and mercy so that others maycome to experience you through
me. May I be a light directingothers to you. Thank you for the
awesome invitation to cooperatewith your plan. Please give me
(12:50):
the strength to be courageous tofollow the promptings of Your
Holy Spirit in my life. Pleasegive me the humility I need to
yield to your spirit. We ask allthis through your holy name.
Amen.
Well, that is allI have for today. I really hope
(13:10):
this was helpful. Please use thelink in the podcast description
to reach out to me if you haveany questions, or if there's any
other way I could serve you.
Thank you for joining me today.
God bless Thank you forlistening to Catholic money
talk. I hope you join us againnext time, please click
Subscribe on your podcast app toget notified of new episodes.
(13:31):
God bless you and have a greatday. You. School. I'm.
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