The Five Best Gifts to Give Your Family

by: Deb Kay - Filed under: Celebrations, Family Add Comment

When we think of giving gifts, we usually think of things to buy for people. Yet if you think back on gifts you’ve been given, it might not be the material gifts you received that are foremost in your mind – it might be the kind of gifts that deeply touched your heart and soul. It might be various ways, other than material things, that people expressed their love to you.

There are five gifts of love that we can give to our families that can make a huge difference in their lives.

THE GIFT OF CARING AND COMPASSION

We all yearn to feel cared for, yet many of us withhold caring and compassion for others. A profound gift we can give to our loved ones is to listen with our heart, to understand and accept rather than to judge, and to stay open to learning rather than to protect against being hurt.

Think about the last time someone actually listened to you and gave you understanding and acceptance. The feeling of being understood and accepted with caring and compassion is one of the best feelings in the world. Instead of focusing on getting this from others, why not focus on giving it to others? You might be surprised at how wonderful you feel in giving this gift to your family.

THE GIFT OF COURAGE

One of the best gifts we can give our loved ones is our own courage. This means being having the courage to stand in our truth, to be honest about what we want and don’t want, what we will do and won’t do, what is and what is not acceptable to us. It means having the courage to take good care of ourselves, even if others don’t like it. It means not succumbing to our controlling behaviors that come from fear: anger, withdrawal, compliance, resistance, but instead being honest and above-board about ourselves. It means being willing to face conflict rather than give ourselves up to avoid it.

When we have the courage to face conflict and tell the truth, we not only provide our family with a role model for courage, but we provide opportunities for our loved ones to step up to the plate in the face of our truth and learn to be courageous too.

THE GIFT OF SERVICE

We are on this planet to learn to love ourselves and each other, and to help each other. One of the best gifts we can give our family is to role model this by doing service. Helping others fills the heart and soul in ways that nothing else can. If children do not see their parents doing service and helping others, they may never learn the great joy and fulfillment that comes from giving. One of the best gifts we can give to our family is to provide ways of doing service.

THE GIFT OF CREATIVITY

All of us are born with various ways of expressing our creativity. Expressing creativity is a profound way of connecting with Spirit, since expressed creativity is a direct expression of Spirit. Providing your family with many ways of expressing their creativity is a great gift. Creativity can be expressed in so many ways – cooking, crafts, building things, music, art, movement, telling stories, writing, humor, photography and video – the possibilities are endless! Creative family projects are especially wonderful in creating family closeness.

THE GIFT OF LIGHTNESS OF BEING

Lightness of being – fun, joy, laughter, playfulness – is a great gift to give to others. Lightness of being is infectious – our laughter and playfulness can help others take life less seriously and “lighten up.”

Lightness of being is one the results of all the other gifts – of caring, courage, service and creativity. When we give these gifts, we feel a wonderful lightness within, the lightness that is the result of fully giving from the heart. Our own lightness of being can bring lightness into our whole family. Children love it when their parents are playful, funloving and joyful. Laughing together as a family is one of the most precious experiences in life.

We need to focus of giving these gifts each day, not just during a holiday season or special occasions. These gifts are far more important than any material thing we can buy for someone. In fact, we might not be so focused on material gifts if we frequently give the gift of love – of caring, compassion, courage, service, creativity, and lightness of being.

What is priceless to you?

by: Deb Kay - Filed under: Family Add Comment

Have you seen those commercials where you can buy things with your master cards and after doing so the commercial gets to the priceless part? For instance having a great time full of laughs with your kid, spending the day at the beach with your family, shopping with your girl friends (it’s not about the shopping but spending time with your friend), another wards the priceless is the human relationships we have in our lives.

With this hetic world with all it’s technology it cannot replace what we want and need most and that’s human connections! Even if we don’t have lots of time or money what can we do to make those connections stronger? How can we bring joy to others and in turn bring much joy to ourselves? Truly what is really important in our lives and what can we let go of?

Family and friends, neighbors, co-workers, elderly, babies, kids & the next person to whom I”m looking forward to meeting. What can I do to enrich their lives? Let’s explore the possibilities and explore the things that were created in us that will cause us to be happier then we ever though possible!

Who connected with us first? Or better yet who loved us first so that we as humans could love back? What does love have to do with it? Can their be true love felt & shown in our world that seems to be mostly cold, cynical and callous? I’d like to suggest to you to connect with your creator first. If you cannot read the bible then get in on cd and pop it in your car & listen to God’s Word. Why should we start there first? Ok consider this let’s say you buy a piece of furniture that has to be put together. We’ve all been faced with this at one time or another. What do we look for inside the package when we open it up? Could it be that we look for the instructions printed on paper to help us put this furniture together? Have we tried doing it without the instructions? How did that work for us? Who wrote our instructions on daily living? Who gave us the way to go to keep us happy, healthy and safe? Why would reading our instruction book help us to lead happier and more satisfying lives?

After re connecting with our spiritual needs & establishing a relationship with our creator, next how can we re connect with others in our family, circle of friends, neighbors hoods, congregations and work?

Could we say some kind words? Could we send some a card with our heartfelt appreciation for them in it? What don’t have time to run to the store and send a card? I have a solution for that and we will talk about that soon. I know each of us can think of ways to show we care about and think of others. Most of all what will this do for us personally? How will this enrich our lives? Will our priorities change? Will we have more peace and happiness? The answer is that the more we give to others it will come back to us tenfold. Think of Job. This is by far my favorite book of the Bible.