December 10th: The Good and Grateful Receiver

I love starting out the Christmas season with the LDS First Presidency devotional.  The messages bring a wonderful spirit to the season.  I was especially touched this year by President Uchtdorf's talk, The Good Grateful Receiver.  We hear so many messages about giving and how it's better to give than receive but I think being a gracious recipient is just as important.  Below is a small part of his talk as well as a video of the whole talk.

As we get older...our ability to receive gifts with the same enthusiasm and grace seems to diminish. Sometimes people even get to the point where they can’t receive a gift or, for that matter, even a compliment without embarrassment or feelings of indebtedness. They mistakenly think that the only acceptable way to respond to receiving a gift is by giving back something of even greater value. Others simply fail to see the significance of a gift—focusing only on its outward appearance or its value and ignoring the deep meaning it has to the sincere giver.

Isn't it so easy to feel like we have to repay our givers and/or equal their gift?

Every gift that is offered to us—especially a gift that comes from the heart—is an opportunity to build or strengthen a bond of love. When we are good and grateful receivers, we open a door to deepen our relationship with the giver of the gift. But when we fail to appreciate or even reject a gift, we not only hurt those who extend themselves to us, but in some way we harm ourselves as well.

Gifts I've received through the years definitely help me feel how much I am loved by others.

The Savior taught that unless we “become as little children, [we] shall not enter … the kingdom of heaven.”³

As we watch the excitement and wonder of children at this time of the year, perhaps we can remind ourselves to rediscover and reclaim a precious and glorious attribute of children—the ability to receive graciously and with gratitude.

Not surprisingly, the Savior is our perfect example not only of generous giving but also of gracious receiving. When He was in Bethany, near the end of His mortal ministry, a woman approached Him with an alabaster box of rare and expensive oil. She was allowed to anoint His head with this precious gift.

Some who witnessed this event became angry. “What a waste of money,” they said. The oil was extremely expensive. It could have been sold and the money given to the poor. They saw only the temporal value of the gift and entirely missed its much greater spiritual significance.

Here is the whole talk.  It's 13 minutes long and definitely worth the time if you haven't heard it already.

My sweet niece went to the play with us and stayed overnight.  Ben has been out of town and it was so nice to have her stay over.  I slept so much better that night!  I was spent that day and was so dreading coming down to clean up after I got the girls to bed.   I'd cleaned up in the morning but then we'd had a playdate that went until we had to leave for the play so the house was a mess again.  To my delight, my niece had straightened everything up by the time I came down to watch a show with her.  Her act of service was the best gift anyone could have given me that particular day.  The next morning she had thoughtful gifts (I'll share the awesome vintage Peanuts TV I got in a separate post) for all of us.  Because our gift didn't equal all she gave us, I had to resist to urge to "mistakenly think that the only acceptable way to respond to receiving a gift is by giving back something of even greater value."  And simply be grateful for her thoughtfulness.

I really want to teach the girls to be "good and grateful receivers" and instill the ability to truly be grateful in them.  I think gratitude for whatever and however much we have been blessed with and not worrying about what others have that we don't is KEY to happiness.  

What are your thoughts/tips on teaching to kids this when we live in a world of excess?