“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets”

Christmas has passed and the presents are open and it’s time to think about thank you cards being sent.  Why do we send thank you notes? It comes down to it’s in our culture and that we do actually follow the rule of reciprocity.  This example was taken from a recent NPR story by reporter, Alix Spiegel.

“In 1974, Phillip Kunz and his family got a record number of Christmas cards. In the weeks before Christmas they came daily, sometimes by the dozen. Kunz still has them in his home, collected in an old photo album.

“Dear Phil, Joyce and family,” a typical card reads, “we received your holiday greeting with much joy and enthusiasm … Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s. Love Lou, Bev and the children.”
The cards from that year came in all shapes and sizes, but the basic message was the same. The writers wanted Kunz to know that he and his family were cared for, and also they wanted to share their own news. They included pictures of family members and new homes and smiling graduates with freshly minted diplomas. It all seems pretty normal, except for one thing: Kunz didn’t know any of them.
Kunz was a sociologist at Brigham Young University. Earlier that year he’d decided to do an experiment to see what would happen if he sent Christmas cards to total strangers. And so he went out and collected directories for some nearby towns and picked out around 600 names. “I started out at a random number and then skipped so many and got to the next one,” he says. To these 600 strangers, Kunz sent his Christmas greetings: handwritten notes or a card with a photo of him and his family. And then Kunz waited to see what would happen.

“It was just, you know, a shot in the dark,” he says. “I didn’t know what would happen.”
But about five days later, responses started filtering back — slowly at first and then more, until eventually they were coming 12, 15 at a time. Eventually Kunz got more than 200 replies. “I was really surprised by how many responses there were,” he says. “And I was surprised by the number of letters that were written, some of them three, four pages long.” Why would someone send a three-page letter to a complete and total stranger? Why did so many people write him back at all?”

And, today the Kunzs’ continue to receive those cards.

How often do we think of the rule of reciprocity for our businesses?  The rule is the same for businesses as individuals.

As believers we know the rule of reciprocity as the “Golden Rule”.  We also know that we don’t give to be given to, but instead we give because of the ultimate that gift that was given to us.  As we begin to think about the coming year and we set our goals, etc.  let’s consider how we can mesh the rule of reciprocity and the Golden Rule even more so in our lives.

Reference:  Matthew 7:12 (New Living Translation)