Talk about a time when you got money as a gift.

The event I want to talk about is getting a fat cheque from my grandparents for entering university — an event that happened three years ago, but it is one of the most cherished days in my memory.

Just after my university place got confirmed, they — who live elsewhere in the country and therefore couldn’t join us for celebrations — arranged a large sum transferred to my account with a hand written note (which is still one of my most precious possessions). In so many words, and in a warmly forthright letter I can still picture today, they meant for that money to allow me space while I made my own way at university — both financially (despite whatstudent loans or parental support might provide), the first weeks of independent living are littered with cost surprises as it is; emotionally, too.

I was very deliberate in figuring out how to use the money because I recognized that when you receive a gift for something meaningful, there will be an expectation of some level of purposefulness versus non-purposeful discretion with those funds. I not only knew better but bought the best kitchen equipment I could afford, settled on a study table and chair combination that felt good to me, even splashed out on what are said to be magic cotton sheets and excellent light bulbs that supposedly make an enormous difference to both sleep and study quality for all you students out there; do it! Part I save to act as my emergency fund for real emergencies, which paid dividends a few months down the line when an unexpected dental bill came up. With the latter I bought a handful of pricey books that I had long coveted but thought too extravagant for my normal pocket — which seemed to me (and one might imagine an impartial observer) particularly be in accord with my grandparents, lifelong readers both.

It taught me that the most practical and potent giving — a properly accompanied gift of money, earnestness to accompany with intention, and the liberation to serve by genuine need — can absolutely deepen our understanding.