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We’re done! My wife and I set out on a mission to give 10% of our generous gift to various family and friends in need. Do you know how hard it is to give money away to people not only in need but deserving?

We figure, we could have blown the money on dumb stuff ourselves so we wouldn’t give it to friends and family members who had no business with a lump sum of money. So we had to quietly (since no one knew we even inherited the money) weed out qualifying targets.

We gave the money on 2 conditions:
- They don’t tell anyone we gave it to them
- They help someone else out in the future.

There were tons of people that needed the money but we were skeptical as to if they’d actually be responsible with it. Some we KNEW wouldn’t be, so we paid bills off for them. Others we gave straight cash to because they had no choice but to be responsible with it. You know the types that have plenty of mouths to feed or young ones depending on them and just need a small “push”. Some just bought a house and since they were first time home owners, didn’t expect bills to mount so quickly and the utilities to be so expensive.

I must say, the feeling it gives you to be able to help someone is AWESOME! We all talk about what we’d do for each other if we ran across some money. The wife and I, actually followed through with it. What’s amazing about it is we all fantasize about the million $ lotteries, all the while, we were able to make a difference in a lot of people lives with only $4,000.

The reaction from people was various. It’s amazing how many people quickly turn to God to thank you for their blessings. Some started tearing up. One confessed that we’d changed his life (beyond comprehension) since he was dealing with some personal issues and he’d let me know when it all got sorted out (still waiting).

Truthfully, after having the money for about 6 months, it started to feel like a curse. It started feeling like, “we had good intentions”, and would just pocket the rest. We were constantly trying to identify people to give the remaining $1000 to. It got to the point we were like Will Smith in seven pounds where we were trying to see if people had a bad side to them before we sacrifice the money to them.

I actually, ran across one person (who shall remain nameless) that kept ignoring me over the Internet when I asked him a questions about how much things were going to cost to get him out of a rut. Only after I’d already given the remaining $536 away would he respond with “what did I want again”. His loss.

All in all, I’m happy to even have the had opportunity to bless people. Giving should be something that we all practice. I’m even leaning towards a new idea that instead of going Xmas shopping for the kids this year, we take that money to do a sort of Secret Santa type deal during the holidays. That’s only in thought at the moment, because right now, we’re in the brunt of the recession just like everyone else.

Maybe I’ll compromise my thoughts and get them all one gift a piece and plant a bigger seed in their heads with the gift of giving.

So what would I do differently if the opportunity presented itself again? Not a damn thing. The experience was awesome and right up there with the births of my children or swimming with the dolphins in Nassau.