However It Is Given

I read a short story in which the author had been pining that her husband usually doesn't get her anything for Christmas until she tells him what she wants. Or she buys it herself and puts a tag on it from him because, after all, he pays for it. She usually chooses her own gift, wraps it, and puts it under the tree. But she doesn't really like this approach to getting a gift. She wants him to think of something for her himself and put it under the tree nicely wrapped. I think we all understand her feelings.

A gift connects two people in some positive, heartfelt way. While choosing a gift, thoughts are about the person we're giving it to, their interests or perhaps their need. We have that person on our mind during the giving process. The gift is in some manner an affirmation of the person receiving it.

The author writes about the time her husband surprised her with a special gift and made that a Christmas she remembers with fondness. Yet, in spite of all the brooding over her husband's usual way at Christmas, she wanted her friend to pick out a gift for herself. At least she was honest enough to say that she had neither the time nor the energy to do the shopping. But she did want to give a gift.

I'm wondering, how is this any different from her husband's manner of giving? It's okay for her. Not okay for him. We all have our blind spots, double standards, unfulfilled expectations, call them for what they are. Why is it that we so often fail to see ourselves with the very foibles we accuse others? We so often attribute positive motivations to what we do ourselves, yet interpret those same actions in negative ways when someone else is the doer of them, especially when it affects us personally.

While the emphasis at Christmas is on giving generously, it's also a time of receiving graciously. Receiving can often be just as much a virtue as giving--if we receive with a grateful heart that in some form or fashion, we are the object of another person's positive thoughts. Even if it's ever-so-slight. However awkwardly they may be expressing it, and however it may not rise to our expectations.

Image via Pixabay

Thanksgiving Begins with the Giver

I saw a reminder on a local church marquis this week that said, "Thanksgiving Begins with the Giver." As I began to consider the truth behind those words, my thoughts were drawn to the Giver of all good gifts, God himself. For every good and perfect gift comes to us from Him.

Most of us across America will be celebrating our Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow. We will eat a big meal and be thankful that we have a table full of food and family or friends to share it with. We will be thankful for what we have enjoyed through the year and the freedom to live in America where we can have it all. We will be thankful for health and many, many other things.

Some will go around the Thanksgiving table as they gather together, offering a word of thanksgiving for something or someone throughout the past year. We know that some things that have come our way are beyond our own doing. We will "be thankful" and "have gratitude."

We basically know what to be thankful for, but will we be considering who we are to be thankful to? Who are we grateful to for providing so many blessings that we enjoy day after day, season after season? Who do we thank for a job where we can earn the money to buy this Thanksgiving meal? Who will we thank for the strength to go out to do the job? Who will we thank for the kitchen to prepare the meal? Who do we thank for such abundant lovingkindness and care? Gratitude and thankfulness require a provider. From whence cometh all these blessings? Surely not from within.

Thanksgiving begins with the giver, not with the gifts. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day, dear one, thanking the giver of all your blessings.

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, 

coming down from the Father of lights.

James 1:7

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; 

give thanks to him and praise his name.

Psalm 100:4

Thankful Thursday ~ My Beloved

Expressing gratitude too often lies silent in the heart. As Thanksgiving approaches, I'm taking Thursdays to offer a word of thankfulness for specific blessings that God has bestowed in my life.

Today I've been thinking how much I appreciate My Beloved. There are a myriad of reasons, but something I heard someone say this morning made gratitude for him bubble up. The lady commented that "when a man retires, his work is done; but when a woman retires, she still has work to do." Perhaps her hubby leaves all the inside and outside work to her, all the business details, all the grocery shopping, etc. etc., but I doubt it.

However it may be with them or others, I'm so very grateful that My Beloved shares in responsibilities around the home now that he is retired. And when he sees that I'm not having time to give attention to some things, he goes ahead and tends to it, like throwing the clothes in the washer and getting it done (like yesterday). Other days I seem to have more free time than he does. We do life together.

I'm so appreciative of My Beloved's thoughtfulness that produces helpfulness, all born out of a heart of unselfish love, compelled by our Father above. Thank you, My Beloved.

Painting ~ Little Spooners, Norman Rockwell

Thankful Thursday ~ For Grandchildren

The autumn season sets me in mind to be grateful for God's abundant blessings, so I thought I'd take a few minutes  on Thursdays as we journey into Thanksgiving to offer a word of gratitude.

Every good thing given and perfect gift is from above (James 1:7).

We picked up our grandchildren today for a few days stay while their parents attend a conference. They live several states away, so our visits are few and far between. But we relish the times we do get to be together and are thankful that we can. I know many grandparents who have their grandchildren living nearby and get to see them often. You are blessed, indeed. As one grandmother puts it, "All of our children and grandchildren live within 2 miles of us so our home is always full of lively, joyful love." So happy for her, but there are also those who don't get to see their grandchildren much at all, or maybe not at all. This is difficult.

Each time we see our sweet ones, they've grown and changed. So, as much as we'd love to see them more, I'm so very thankful that we get to have them visit every now and then. It does a heart good... until they have to leave. <sigh>

Choosing Gratitude

The beauty of Christian gratitude is that one little act of thanksgiving on our part - when directed toward or inspired by its rightful Recipient - can bound and rebound from one end of the kingdom to the other, not only blessing God, not only benefiting us, but even lodging itself in places and in people where God's love might never have been received any other way.

~ Nancy Leigh DeMoss