Law of Reciprocity

 THE LAW OF RECIPROCITY
"Abundance is a dance with Reciprocity - What we can give, what we can share and what we receive in the process"
-Terry Tempest Williams
A certain situation last week got me to ponder about this law more deeply. The law simply means that "If you do something nice for me, I will do something nice for you in return". Or the vice versa. In legal terms, this is usually termed or referred to as "quid pro quo".
Human nature in itself can be very selfish. Many times, we are eager to have people do things for us whereas we are not willing to do the same for them. We want that friend to come see us but we never make an effort to go over to their place. We want to be loaned money but we never loan others. We want others to read our content but we never bother with theirs. We want customers but we don't support other people's businesses. We want people to contribute to our causes, problems or issues whilst we are never bothered when others need our help.
In the process....another law comes into play. The Law of Attraction. We attract the things which we are. And for every deed we do to others, the same is ALREADY done to us too. It's on its way back to us...good or bad. As they say Karma never sleeps. Needless to say, the law works for both positive and negative actions.
John Maxwell talks about Reciprocity being "One person offering value and receiving value in exchange". This got me thinking even further. Is it fair to say that we should sow reciprocity in fertile, good soil so to speak? Where there will be value in return? By value...I am not speaking of financial return. It is much more than that. The value we receive back could be simply in form of a thank you or in the satisfaction of seeing the person we help succeed or come out of a bad situation because we sowed a good seed in them.
Heriponder
1. What are you expecting from people in your life? Are you offering value in return?
2. Are you sowing your reciprocity on fertile ground? Is the value you are offering valued?
3. What are you attracting back to yourself based on your deeds?
4. Are you offering/giving others what you wish to receive as well? (Resources, love, assistance etc)
"Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law of the prophets"
- Matthew 7: 12
Let's do our best to watch our actions more carefully and to ensure we offer value and hopefully receive value back as well. And when value is not reciprocated...to find better ground to sow our seeds.

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