On Giving Gifts

I love to give gifts. It is my primary love language. Love picking out gifts, wrapping them, selecting cards--the whole nine yards. I really get into gift wrap, ribbons, stationery and stickers, etc. When I was in college, one of my jobs was as a gift wrapper at a mall department store--I really enjoyed it, too. Stores like Paper Affair or Swoozies are so much fun to me--I could spend hours in there just looking at all of the goodies.

So anyway, I love giving gifts, and I truly believe it is more blessed to give than to receive. I have some friends who are the same way--Kristi is one of them, and Marsha is another. In fact, Marshie and I used to sit around and talk about things we would buy for people if we had a lot of money.

Over the last few years, however, my gift-giving philosophy has changed. I think it has to do with my philosophy on keeping things in general. See, I used to be a saver--but now I am becoming more of a tosser. We have limited space, so I can't keep things like I used to. My keeping was tied into being sentimental, but I am changing. Oh, I'm still sentimental, but I try not to attach too many feelings to objects. This post is already getting too long, so I'll have to share more on that another day.

Anyway, so I've been thinking about gifts a lot lately. We are in the midst of birthday season in our family, after all. I try to be more practical in our gift-giving these days. I am more likely to just send money or a gift card than before. But sometimes it's hard for me to resist buying things for people--especially if it is a good deal. Oh, and especially if it is for kids.

A while back, my friend Kristen mentioned something to me about when we worked together (in my single days, when I lived in Charlotte) ... how she didn't quite understand why I was always buying things for my nieces and nephews. But then after her sister had a child, she got it. There is just something about buying things for children! (It's another reason I love Operation Christmas Child so much!) So now that I have a child of my own, I have to hold back on buying things for her all the time. We were so fortunate to receive many, many nice baby gifts and hand-me-downs--but there is still a little pull inside of me to get things for Kate to be from us. Does that make any sense?

So I was thinking about this recently, and the Bible verse about giving good gifts to our children came to mind. Do you remember it? I looked it up:

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! --Matthew 7:11, NIV

As a "gifts" person, that verse really speaks to me. I know how to give good gifts to my child. I know the desire to give good gifts to my child. And then to consider how much more God wants to give good gifts to us when we ask Him--it can bring me to tears.

He already has given us the most precious gift ever in Christ Jesus.