Jesus Christ is a gift to the World! He has given great things to the world and we have the potential to fill our hearts with Joy warmth from His stocking. (Psalm 121:3)
He has given us gifts of sparkling wine that bubbles with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness when poured into our heart goblet. (Galatians. 5:22)
Our mailboxes are stuffed with gifts from The Giver of Life. He has given each of us gifts and talents with instructions to not neglect our gift(s). (I Timothy 4:14) He knows our zip code and we should know, understand and develop our strength zones.
Gift-giving is a connector to another. So just what does your Christmas Shopping List look like? Do your thoughts, your time, and your money that goes into deciding and giving your gifts to one of your life- connectors have meaning to you? Or, will you even understand and know just how you connected yourself to the gift recipient. What part of Christ in you was given to your life-connector? The instructions in the scriptures say, “give yourself to your gifts.” Gift giving and gift receiving will determine in part your divine destiny.
When you receive a gift from another, do you feel the vibes of the Holy Spirit’s power that was at work on your behalf? Or do you feel the vibes of the giver’s unhealthy emotions being transferred to you? Our gifts to another should come from our healthy emotions so the gift will connect to their health and together we both receive the abundant blessings God has for us. Our ‘gift relationships’, which is our ‘life- connector’, will and always speaks through our gift-giving and gift receiving.
I love GIFTS! I love giving Gifts and I love receiving Gifts. I love the Gift, Jesus Christ, and I love the Gifts He has given me and continues to give me. I have many very special gifts He has given me that are power-packed and run smoothly without AAA batteries. The gift of eternal life, love, joy, peace, forgiveness and happiness are just a few among the many gifts he has given me. I really enjoy my relationship with Jesus Christ. I love my fellowship with Him and His friends which include many of you. I have many gifts that are too numerous to name from His friends to me making them connectors to me. And, I am in love with my ‘special friendship’ with Him. I also love my friendship with the ones He has connected to me through ‘The Gift.’
Gift-Giving is about relationships. When we have a relationship with God, He invites us to develop our relationship by Faith with His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Son, Jesus Christ, introduces us to our life-coach, the Holy Spirit. We meet friends of God’s through our churches and other gatherings prepared for our giving and receiving of gifts.
Then, our gift-giving, life-connectors really begin. Our destiny begins to show through the gifts we give and receive. Are you able to enjoy and utilize the gifts others give you? Do you first seek the Kingdom of God and His ideas for your gift-giving? Therefore, giving greater, more interesting and vibrant gifts to others? (Matthew 6:33) “…seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
My prayer for today is that we will be successful in gift-giving. That we will give gifts to celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ out of our healthy emotions. The gifts we receive from others will be so life-connecting that if we suffer from any unhealthy emotions we will be healed from the gift of another. Our gift giving will bring mental, emotional and spiritual health to the ones we give gifts to. As we give gifts to children and others on behalf of Santa, may they come from a healthy heart and not from unhealthy and unresolved emotions from our past. May we not hand down from generation to generation sickness and addictions vs. health and freedom.
What does your gift-giving say about you? What does a gift from another say about your relationship with them? Be a gift to another!
thedailylily.com 
Oh Sara, what an “awesome” volume this speaks to me. God sure wanted to connect to us, when He gave the world the most precious gift He could give…… His only Son!
As we approach the gift-giving season, may we consider the connection we have, with the person we buy and give our gifts to. Thank you, Sara, for helping us put this gift giving into perspective.
Thank you, thank you, Sara, for such an insightful teaching on
“THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING”; that is, our LORD JESUS CHRIST and all the concomitant blessings that accompany deeds and actions, like gift-giving and receiving, when inspired by the Holy Spirit. How much more meaningful is the act of giving when it is not so much about the giver but about and truly for the one who is receiving. Sometimes we give out of compulsion or duty or how it will reflect upon us. But if we would take your wise counsel and consider each one that we wish to bless and what Christian virtue we wish to be manifested …generosity, thoughtfulness, appropriateness for and to the ones we give, then the generational spirits and the “religious” spirits will not prevail and take away the true meaning and the joy of CHRISTMAS…the day Christ came to earth.
Thank you, Pastor Sara, for the blessed message.
Praying and listening for our Lord’s guidance
concerning gift giving has now begun. May I show
my appreciation for the gifts of others and offer
gifts of spiritual enrichment this season.
I , too agree with Susan’s prayer…listening and praying for guidance, while there is still time!
Thank You, Lord, for the opportunity to not only give, but like Sara & Susan said, show MY appreciation in a godly manner.
Sara your innovative illustrations of gifts and connectors makes me think of the lights on a Christmas tree. One end of the strand receives the current’s power from the previous strand and the other end gives the power for the next strand to receive and be lit up. When all the strands are carefully placed and properly connected to the main Power source of God, then the tree is lit up beautifully, giving joy and light to all around.
Thank you for the prayer that we will be successful in our gift-giving.
Thank You Sara for your gift that has given to us here at the Daily Lily…..the gift of wisdom for us to use in our gift giving…..you are altogether lovely with His love and you shine with His brightness..it lights our way…(my pathway is lighted with His wisdom through you)…thank you….dj
When we receive the inspired revelation of the Word of God that can be applied to our every day life, such as this wisdom for this season and beyond, then we can truly say, “Thy Word is lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”
Susan, your comment led me to visit the following scripture:
“And walk in love (esteeming and delighting in one another) as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us…” (Ephesians 5:2 AMP).
As we honor and value another we are showing appreciation for the gift of God in them. When we see others as valuable, the way God sees them; we continue our journey of spiritual wholeness and give others a light to help build stronger relationships!
I join with you in praying “May I show my appreciation for the gifts of others and offer gifts of spiritual enrichment this season.”
Debi, a great photo with your words of how we connect to one another. Gift giving connects us to others and they to us. I thought a little about your lights and had some memories of my tree lights and difficulties I have had in keeping them on. I have had strings of lights when one goes out they all go out!
Dorothy, thank you for your graciousness in showing
your appreciation for the gift of God in me. Your name Dorothy means gift of God. You saw a gift of God (word of wisdom) in another and you esteemed it highly and as we have come to understand; your gift and desires in life will only increase as you esteem others.
I am seeing more each day that our higher self is about recognizing, expressing and showing appreciate for the gifts in others.
MG, as I thought about your words “Sometimes we give out of compulsion or duty or how it will reflect upon us.”
I was reminded of a phrase I have heard quite a lot lately… “symptom of overwhelm called ‘attentional blindness’.”
The one word I hear from so often “busy”…I often pause and think ‘busy’, doing what? Busy being compulsive with being busy.
If we were to substitute love, joy, or peace for the word busy for a few days we might find that busy was just that, attentional blindness.
It is good to see, understand and work on areas that may have us blinded and keeping us from a full life of peace and joy. After all that is what Christ is about PEACE!
Sara,
It’s a spiritual truism in what you said about “when one light in the string goes out, they all go out.” It correlates to a certain Scripture in 1Cor. 12:25-26, ” So there should be no discord or lack of adaptation of the Body of Christ to each other, but the members should all have a mutual interest in and care for one another.” (and here is the ‘string of lights’ parallel)…”And if one member suffers,” (if one light goes out)….”all the parts share the suffering. And if one member is honored, all the parts share the honor and the enjoyment of it.”
And Ephesians 4:25 encourages us to be true to one another rejecting all falsity and consider the good of our neighbor (maybe the one to whom we are giving a gift) for we are all part of one Body, that is, THE BODY OF CHRIST.”
And so from these Scriptures it would seem that when we give in the fashion Sara has described, our gift not only honors the one to whom we give, but the whole Body of Christ AND the HEAD of the Body, CHRIST!
Isn’t God magnificent!!!!!
What is so magnificent about the gifts of God working through each of us by divine guidance is just how unique each one is and can be.
Many of us can have the same ‘gift’ like giving, teaching, administration, and the list goes on but when it is in the uniqueness of our skin the gift can be magnified to it’s potential. When we fill our skin up with love for others and esteem the receivers of our gift very high our gift becomes the unique me.
When accepting a gift from another comes the accepting of love that motivated the gift. Few givers are perfect, so few gifts come from absolutely pure affection. If you’ve practiced receiving with an open heart, you’ll be better able to know which gifts are genuine and which gifts are not.
I am still working on gifts being motivated by love.
Thank you for this insightful article on gift giving. This week I have seen in my class a gift of love. The students wrote to soldiers wishing them a Merry Christmas. (This is part of The Daily Lily’s Christmas message and giving our words of appreciation “cards for a soldier as Sara ask us to do) Many (students) wrote thank yous to the soldiers for all they have done in protecting our country and putting us before their own lives. One child wrote that he hoped that he would grow up to be just like them in serving our country. What a gift to give your life for others. My gifts seem shallow in comparison in light of these writing by children. Lord may you keep working with me and motivating me to give the perfect gifts that you would want me to give this year. May it direct receiver/s to you and motivate them to look at YOU the giver of love, joy, and peace. May it cause growth in their spiritual man.
PS My principal who has a son in Iraq and says the soldiers love cards even more than packages. They have to walk 2 miles to pick up their mail and 2 miles back. The power of words to a soldier is very powerful. The Daily Lily is still sending “cards to a soldier-not too late so please join in with The Daily Lily in sending.” We hope to have many 100’s going. Sara is focused on this as a gift of love to our soldiers.
Rena, thanks for sharing about the children and their letters and cards to a soldier. I had the opportunity of reading some of them and seeing their art work. What amazing children we have in this country. You are so right we can learn love, affection, kindness and hope from our children.
When I think of some of the soldiers we are writing to, I think I knew them when they were the age of these 4th graders that are writing to a soldier. Just think we are now training a new generation that may be a soldier away from their home, their homeland at Christmas and will remember when they wrote a card. As they sit or fight in a lonely place somewhere just maybe a new child return the love to them. Let us keep moving forward with God’s love and train child after child to be shining stars that will continue to light the way for others.
Thanks to all the teachers, parents, CCI and Tammy M.’s work that are participating in the project for our soldiers on behalf of The Daily Lily. I am thrilled, so full of joy and love for all that have and are working on this project.
Sara, I love this blog. We do need to be gifts to others. This is a great blog for this time of the year. Thank you for sharing this blog with us.