October 20, 2025 • 10 mins
Feeling torn between your desire to give and the reality of bills, debt, and tight budgets? You’re not alone. In today’s Question of the Day, Laura answers a heartfelt question from Mark in Texas about generosity—how much to give, when to give, and how to give without guilt.
Discover why generosity isn’t about dollar amounts, but about heart posture—and how living open-handedly invites abundance and joy into your life.
In this episode you’ll learn:
- The biblical foundation for cheerful, intentional giving (2 Corinthians 9:7–8)
- Why generosity must come from alignment, not guilt or pressure
- How to prioritize giving while still caring for your household’s needs
- Why “percentage over perfection” is the key to consistent, joyful generosity
- Practical ways to plan, budget, and practice generosity—including spontaneous moments of blessing
Ready to grow your generosity and experience the joy of giving with purpose? Join the free 7-Day “Give Thanks and Give Back” Challenge inside the Legacy Builders Network on Facebook.
Let’s practice living open-handedly and discover what God can do through a generous heart.
Learn more about working with Laura Sexton
. Join the Facebook group Legacy Builders Network.
· Become a master with your money. Learn more here!
· Checkout the resource library here!
Want to ask a question Laura can answer on the podcast? Connect with her here!
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Send an email to Laura@AccelerateYourLegacy.com or send a DM on Instagram @accelerateyourlegacy
Elevate your coaching with daily devotionals and prayers from 'Seasoned with Salt.' Get your copy HERE!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
hello, and welcome to thequestion of the day series here
(00:02):
on Money and Career Mastery,where we tackle real questions
from real people who are tryingto make money, feel less chaotic
and work feel more meaningful.
Think of it like chatting with afriend.
If your friend also happened tobe a money coach.
Okay, let's jump in to today'squestion.
Laura (00:21):
Hey Accelerator, it's time for another question of the
day.
If you have a question thatyou'd like me to answer, please
feel free to email me athello@accelerateyourlegacy.com.
And I would love to answer yourquestion today comes from Mark.
In Texas.
Oh.
Hopefully not my brother.
Mark says, I feel guilty everytime I think about giving.
I wanna be generous.
(00:42):
But between Bill's debt and justthe cost of living, I never feel
like I'm doing enough.
How much should I really begiving right now?
Oh, mark, I love this question.
This question shows your heart.
It's already leaning towardsgenerosity, and that really
matters.
It's very exciting because itmatters not only to you and your
(01:02):
success and your future, butit's also, something that
matters very much to God aswell.
What comes to mind the firsttime?
Anytime anybody asks aboutgiving, the first thing that
comes to mind is secondCorinthians nine, seven, which
says, each one must give as hehas decided in his heart to
give, not reluctantly or undercompulsion.
For God loves a cheerful giver,which, I mean, who doesn't want
(01:26):
to be loved by God?
Well, what I really love, inthat Bible passage is the verse
that comes right after that twoCorinthians nine, eight, and God
is able to bless you abundantlyso that in all things at all
times, having all that you need,you'll abound in every good
work.
So not only are you deciding togive in your heart and giving
(01:49):
cheerfully, but by doing so, youare being blessed and blessed
abundantly so that you have allthat you need and you're able to
do more.
You're able to abound in yourgood work.
So your heart posture is right.
You want to be giving.
That's amazing.
You are about to step intoabundance in a way that you
(02:11):
don't even know, just by thegiving, just by the generosity.
Generosity itself is not aboutguilt or about pressure.
It's about alignment and joy.
Generosity be it, of your time,of your money, of your talents,
generosity will give you.
Joy just will, especially if yougive cheerfully.
(02:33):
So I wanna address a couple ofthings.
Three really guiding principleswhen it comes to giving.
First of all, and this is not inmy notes, I'm just gonna throw
it out there, if, if you feellike you need to give, you
should give, but don't give.
Money that could be used andshould be used to do things like
(02:54):
taking care of your household.
If you put more emphasis ongiving money away than you do,
making sure that you are takencare of, you are doing the wrong
thing.
You need to make sure that yourhome is being cared for.
That means your four walls arecovered, and that's your food,
shelter, transportation,utilities.
That's what needs to be covered.
(03:17):
If you wanna give above andbeyond that, that's fine.
Now, I want you to start whereyou are, not where you wish that
you were when it comes to yourspending.
That means starting with a smallstep.
Small steps matter.
You don't have to go from$0 to$10,000 of giving, although that
would be really cool if youcould give away$10,000 worth of
(03:39):
your money.
I also think that when it comesto giving a percentage is better
than perfection.
So many people choose 10% as abaseline.
Tithe literally means 10th.
That's what the word means.
So people that are choosing totithe, they're choosing to give
a 10th to their local.
Church congregation, butscripture also calls us to be a
(03:59):
faithful steward.
Faithful stewardship is morethan a formula.
Proverbs three, nine says, honorthe Lord with your wealth and
with the first fruits of allyour produce.
Be honoring, give first, give atthe top.
So a lot of people do theirbudgets where they have all
their bills and everything, andthen they pay for their food and
(04:20):
their fun things, and then theyput generosity down at the
bottom.
And I promise you, if you givefrom your leftovers instead of
from your values, you will neverhave any money to give anything.
Generosity has to be planned.
And yes, you need some room forspontaneous generosity.
That is definitely fun.
(04:40):
But if you don't prioritize it,it's never gonna happen.
It's the easiest thing to put atthe bottom of your list to call
your leftovers is giving.
I like to make budgets withpeople.
If I'm making a spending planwith you, I wanna ask first, do
you do any charitable giving?
For me, my 10%, that's the firstline item in every single
(05:03):
budget.
Every single one.
How much is my giving thismonth?
What is the 10% of what I hadcoming in for this paycheck?
I believe it was John dRockefeller.
I would never have been able totithe the first million dollars.
I would never have been able totithe the first million dollars
I ever made if I had not tithedmy first salary.
(05:23):
Now, he started out making abouta dollar 50 a week, easy to
tithe on a dollar 50, reallyhard to tithe on a million
dollars.
But for John Rockefeller, heknew how important it was to be
generous and he had it on hisheart to give a 10% of his
salary.
So when he had a milliondollars, that was already part
(05:44):
of his practice.
Generosity does have to bepracticed.
You have to get in the habit ofit'cause it's hard in the
beginning.
But let me tell you what, one ofmy favorite things to do is.
Over tipping.
I was a waitress for a longtime, probably over a decade,
(06:04):
18% was standard, 15% wasnormal.
20% made you feel real goodabout yourself.
Some people were still doing 10%and if it was that, I'd take
that over.
Nothing.
It just makes me giddy when Ican over tip.
So my husband and I went out toeat this last week, just one of
those days where it felt like,you know what?
(06:25):
We're gonna take our plan, wecan eat those for leftovers
tomorrow.
'cause I had something simmeringin the crockpot and we were just
very intentional with, we're notgonna get to spend a lot of time
together due to overtime in thenext couple of weeks.
So it would be really great ifwe could just go to dinner with
the kids and enjoy some timetogether.
These are some of my favoritemoments when we can do that
(06:46):
because we have the money.
But on top of that, our waitresswas really nice and she made a
comment about how one of herleast favorite things to do when
she got off of work was to gohome and have to help her kid
with homework.
She loves helping, you know,being with her kid, but she
hates that the time has to bespent doing homework.
She's like, Ugh, homework blah.
(07:07):
Because my kids were doinghomework at the table and I was
like, oh, this woman haschildren and she's having to, or
choosing to work at arestaurant.
Wouldn't it be fun just to blessher a little bit?
So I tipped 30%.
Now I love tipping the bill, butwe racked up a bit of a bill
between the seven of us.
(07:27):
But I got to give her a 30% tip.
It feels really dang good.
But I do that because we'reintentional about putting,
giving in our budget.
I know people that put overtipping as a line item in their
budget, which is just super fun.
I can't wait to get there oneday.
So Mark, I know that you'resitting here going, oh, I feel
(07:48):
guilty about wanting to do this.
Part of that could be becauseyou don't actually have a
tightened in budget, but part ofit could be because you have
some really big goals.
Maybe your goal is to be debtfree, and that is so incredibly
important to you and you'rejust.
You're working so hard rightnow, and so you're trying to get
the debt paid off.
(08:09):
I get that and I'm cheering youon Mark.
Maybe for right now, we dial itback a little bit.
You get to decide in your ownheart how much you want to give.
Now, give regularly.
Don't make it a, oh, I'll getaround to it whenever.
Make sure your budget is alignedcorrectly.
(08:30):
Remember that, look, you're,you're not failing if you can
only give a little bit.
You're winning every time yougive with intention.
And God will honor your heartposture more than your dollar
amount.
God doesn't need your money.
He doesn't need your help, buthe does ask you to give.
And why does he ask you to give?
Why does God ask you to give ifhe doesn't need your money?
(08:51):
Because he knows that it willmake you a better person to
give.
So if you are giving and youfeel guilty about giving because
you think you're hurting yourfamily, don't do it.
If you feel guilty about givingbecause you feel like you're not
giving enough, you need tochange the way you're looking at
this because God does not needyour money to be able to achieve
his purposes.
(09:11):
But what God knows and what Ihope that you know is that he
asks you to give because hewants your heart posture to be
correct.
He wants you to be generous.
He wants you to hold things withan open hand because he can't
bless you abundantly if yourhands are closed.
But when your hands are open andyou're able to be generous, he's
(09:32):
able to bless you abundantly.
Your heart is full of abundanceand gratitude and joy because of
your giving.
You are building the habits ofyour legacy right now.
Habits that your family will seeand will carry on.
So open your hands.
Do not give with a closed fist.
(09:52):
And if you wanna grow yourgenerosity, this is good.
Okay, so this is the perfect.
Time for this question becausestarting the first full week of
November, we're doing a sevenday generosity challenge called
Give thanks and give back.
Inside of my free Facebook groupthe Legacy Builders Network with
Laura Sexton, we're going topractice giving with purpose,
not guilt, and we are going todiscover the joy that God
(10:15):
promises and living openhandedly.
Look, the link is down in theshow notes.
I hope to see you there.
Bring a friend, bring a couplefriends.
Remember that your giving is alifestyle of open hands, not
just a financial line item.
Thank you so much for writingin.
I cannot wait to see whatblessings God has in short for
you because you are choosing tobe a giver.
(10:39):
Have a great week and I willtalk to you again soon.
That's it for this week.
Accelerators go out and make adifference.
hello, and welcome to thequestion of the day series here
(00:02):
on Money and Career Mastery,where we tackle real questions
from real people who are tryingto make money, feel less chaotic
and work feel more meaningful.
Think of it like chatting with afriend.
If your friend also happened tobe a money coach.
Okay, let's jump in to today'squestion.
Laura (00:21):
Hey Accelerator, it's time for another question of the
day.
If you have a question thatyou'd like me to answer, please
feel free to email me athello@accelerateyourlegacy.com.
And I would love to answer yourquestion today comes from Mark.
In Texas.
Oh.
Hopefully not my brother.
Mark says, I feel guilty everytime I think about giving.
I wanna be generous.
(00:42):
But between Bill's debt and justthe cost of living, I never feel
like I'm doing enough.
How much should I really begiving right now?
Oh, mark, I love this question.
This question shows your heart.
It's already leaning towardsgenerosity, and that really
matters.
It's very exciting because itmatters not only to you and your
(01:02):
success and your future, butit's also, something that
matters very much to God aswell.
What comes to mind the firsttime?
Anytime anybody asks aboutgiving, the first thing that
comes to mind is secondCorinthians nine, seven, which
says, each one must give as hehas decided in his heart to
give, not reluctantly or undercompulsion.
For God loves a cheerful giver,which, I mean, who doesn't want
(01:26):
to be loved by God?
Well, what I really love, inthat Bible passage is the verse
that comes right after that twoCorinthians nine, eight, and God
is able to bless you abundantlyso that in all things at all
times, having all that you need,you'll abound in every good
work.
So not only are you deciding togive in your heart and giving
(01:49):
cheerfully, but by doing so, youare being blessed and blessed
abundantly so that you have allthat you need and you're able to
do more.
You're able to abound in yourgood work.
So your heart posture is right.
You want to be giving.
That's amazing.
You are about to step intoabundance in a way that you
(02:11):
don't even know, just by thegiving, just by the generosity.
Generosity itself is not aboutguilt or about pressure.
It's about alignment and joy.
Generosity be it, of your time,of your money, of your talents,
generosity will give you.
Joy just will, especially if yougive cheerfully.
(02:33):
So I wanna address a couple ofthings.
Three really guiding principleswhen it comes to giving.
First of all, and this is not inmy notes, I'm just gonna throw
it out there, if, if you feellike you need to give, you
should give, but don't give.
Money that could be used andshould be used to do things like
(02:54):
taking care of your household.
If you put more emphasis ongiving money away than you do,
making sure that you are takencare of, you are doing the wrong
thing.
You need to make sure that yourhome is being cared for.
That means your four walls arecovered, and that's your food,
shelter, transportation,utilities.
That's what needs to be covered.
(03:17):
If you wanna give above andbeyond that, that's fine.
Now, I want you to start whereyou are, not where you wish that
you were when it comes to yourspending.
That means starting with a smallstep.
Small steps matter.
You don't have to go from$0 to$10,000 of giving, although that
would be really cool if youcould give away$10,000 worth of
(03:39):
your money.
I also think that when it comesto giving a percentage is better
than perfection.
So many people choose 10% as abaseline.
Tithe literally means 10th.
That's what the word means.
So people that are choosing totithe, they're choosing to give
a 10th to their local.
Church congregation, butscripture also calls us to be a
(03:59):
faithful steward.
Faithful stewardship is morethan a formula.
Proverbs three, nine says, honorthe Lord with your wealth and
with the first fruits of allyour produce.
Be honoring, give first, give atthe top.
So a lot of people do theirbudgets where they have all
their bills and everything, andthen they pay for their food and
(04:20):
their fun things, and then theyput generosity down at the
bottom.
And I promise you, if you givefrom your leftovers instead of
from your values, you will neverhave any money to give anything.
Generosity has to be planned.
And yes, you need some room forspontaneous generosity.
That is definitely fun.
(04:40):
But if you don't prioritize it,it's never gonna happen.
It's the easiest thing to put atthe bottom of your list to call
your leftovers is giving.
I like to make budgets withpeople.
If I'm making a spending planwith you, I wanna ask first, do
you do any charitable giving?
For me, my 10%, that's the firstline item in every single
(05:03):
budget.
Every single one.
How much is my giving thismonth?
What is the 10% of what I hadcoming in for this paycheck?
I believe it was John dRockefeller.
I would never have been able totithe the first million dollars.
I would never have been able totithe the first million dollars
I ever made if I had not tithedmy first salary.
(05:23):
Now, he started out making abouta dollar 50 a week, easy to
tithe on a dollar 50, reallyhard to tithe on a million
dollars.
But for John Rockefeller, heknew how important it was to be
generous and he had it on hisheart to give a 10% of his
salary.
So when he had a milliondollars, that was already part
(05:44):
of his practice.
Generosity does have to bepracticed.
You have to get in the habit ofit'cause it's hard in the
beginning.
But let me tell you what, one ofmy favorite things to do is.
Over tipping.
I was a waitress for a longtime, probably over a decade,
(06:04):
18% was standard, 15% wasnormal.
20% made you feel real goodabout yourself.
Some people were still doing 10%and if it was that, I'd take
that over.
Nothing.
It just makes me giddy when Ican over tip.
So my husband and I went out toeat this last week, just one of
those days where it felt like,you know what?
(06:25):
We're gonna take our plan, wecan eat those for leftovers
tomorrow.
'cause I had something simmeringin the crockpot and we were just
very intentional with, we're notgonna get to spend a lot of time
together due to overtime in thenext couple of weeks.
So it would be really great ifwe could just go to dinner with
the kids and enjoy some timetogether.
These are some of my favoritemoments when we can do that
(06:46):
because we have the money.
But on top of that, our waitresswas really nice and she made a
comment about how one of herleast favorite things to do when
she got off of work was to gohome and have to help her kid
with homework.
She loves helping, you know,being with her kid, but she
hates that the time has to bespent doing homework.
She's like, Ugh, homework blah.
(07:07):
Because my kids were doinghomework at the table and I was
like, oh, this woman haschildren and she's having to, or
choosing to work at arestaurant.
Wouldn't it be fun just to blessher a little bit?
So I tipped 30%.
Now I love tipping the bill, butwe racked up a bit of a bill
between the seven of us.
(07:27):
But I got to give her a 30% tip.
It feels really dang good.
But I do that because we'reintentional about putting,
giving in our budget.
I know people that put overtipping as a line item in their
budget, which is just super fun.
I can't wait to get there oneday.
So Mark, I know that you'resitting here going, oh, I feel
(07:48):
guilty about wanting to do this.
Part of that could be becauseyou don't actually have a
tightened in budget, but part ofit could be because you have
some really big goals.
Maybe your goal is to be debtfree, and that is so incredibly
important to you and you'rejust.
You're working so hard rightnow, and so you're trying to get
the debt paid off.
(08:09):
I get that and I'm cheering youon Mark.
Maybe for right now, we dial itback a little bit.
You get to decide in your ownheart how much you want to give.
Now, give regularly.
Don't make it a, oh, I'll getaround to it whenever.
Make sure your budget is alignedcorrectly.
(08:30):
Remember that, look, you're,you're not failing if you can
only give a little bit.
You're winning every time yougive with intention.
And God will honor your heartposture more than your dollar
amount.
God doesn't need your money.
He doesn't need your help, buthe does ask you to give.
And why does he ask you to give?
Why does God ask you to give ifhe doesn't need your money?
(08:51):
Because he knows that it willmake you a better person to
give.
So if you are giving and youfeel guilty about giving because
you think you're hurting yourfamily, don't do it.
If you feel guilty about givingbecause you feel like you're not
giving enough, you need tochange the way you're looking at
this because God does not needyour money to be able to achieve
his purposes.
(09:11):
But what God knows and what Ihope that you know is that he
asks you to give because hewants your heart posture to be
correct.
He wants you to be generous.
He wants you to hold things withan open hand because he can't
bless you abundantly if yourhands are closed.
But when your hands are open andyou're able to be generous, he's
(09:32):
able to bless you abundantly.
Your heart is full of abundanceand gratitude and joy because of
your giving.
You are building the habits ofyour legacy right now.
Habits that your family will seeand will carry on.
So open your hands.
Do not give with a closed fist.
(09:52):
And if you wanna grow yourgenerosity, this is good.
Okay, so this is the perfect.
Time for this question becausestarting the first full week of
November, we're doing a sevenday generosity challenge called
Give thanks and give back.
Inside of my free Facebook groupthe Legacy Builders Network with
Laura Sexton, we're going topractice giving with purpose,
not guilt, and we are going todiscover the joy that God
(10:15):
promises and living openhandedly.
Look, the link is down in theshow notes.
I hope to see you there.
Bring a friend, bring a couplefriends.
Remember that your giving is alifestyle of open hands, not
just a financial line item.
Thank you so much for writingin.
I cannot wait to see whatblessings God has in short for
you because you are choosing tobe a giver.
(10:39):
Have a great week and I willtalk to you again soon.
That's it for this week.
Accelerators go out and make adifference.
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