Spirit FM – Christmas Gift Ideas 2 Jamie_ today I want to continue

							Spirit FM – Christmas Gift Ideas 2

Jamie, today I want to continue to look at ways to spend less on Christmas and
still have a special holiday season. Last week I shared some inexpensive holiday
traditions. This week I want to focus on gifts that adult children can give their
parents or grandparents.

Mark Murphy from Brandon, FL told us about the best gift he ever received. His
adult daughter gave him a shoe box covered in a colorful striped fabric and filled
with small pieces of different types of paper with a handwritten note on each
one. On the inside of the lid of the box was a note that said, “75 reasons why I
love you, Dad.” He said that he intended to open only a few and save the rest for
later. However, after reading the first few he could not stop until he had read all
of them. She had shared how he had touched her heart over the years. They
were about times of instructions, or just times they had been together doing what
he thought were routine things of life. Mark shared that it blessed him so,
because as parents we so desire to know that we are making a difference in our
children’s lives. This gift of a couple of dollars, which still sits in a prominent place
in his house, is as the Master Card commercial says, “Priceless.”

Sidney Moss, a grandmother from Tampa, FL told about her best Christmas gift, a
homemade trivet, given to her by her daughter and two granddaughters. They
purchased an 8” by 10” piece of white ceramic tile and two colors of ceramic
paint. Her daughter put a different color on one hand of each granddaughter and
had each put their hand print on the ceramic tile. She put their names under their
hand print and added some little flowers, a cross, and the date for decorations.
This special $3.00 gift is still in use today. Every time Sidney takes something hot
out of the oven and places it on her trivet she sees those tiny hand prints and
thinks about all the joy her granddaughters and daughter have brought to her life.

Sidney’s story reminded me of the Christmas that my children made pillow cases
for their grandmothers. We bought inexpensive white pillow cases and special
crayons to decorate them with. They actually had to draw the reverse images on
paper and then ironed the paper with the images face down onto the pillow case.
They put images on the pillow cases that were meaningful to them and grandma.
My mother used her personalized pillow case until her death seven years later.

Gifts of time and talents that are made uniquely for that person are priceless,
because they are a constant reminder of the gift of relationships. I want to ask
you in closing today; as we approach another Christmas holiday, do you have a
relationship with God? If you have put your faith in Jesus for your salvation, then
the Bible says that you “are no longer a slave to the Law, but a son; and if a son,
then an heir through God.” That alone is all we need to have a great Christmas.

Next week I will wrap up this series with some more gift ideas.