To keep in mind what the true spirit of gift-giving is about, consider
the following story--
One day a man
punished his young daughter for wasting
a roll of gold wrapping
paper. Money was tight and he
was furious when the child tried to decorate
a box.
Nevertheless, the
little girl brought the gift to her father
the next morning and said,
"This is for you, Daddy." He
was embarrassed by his earlier
overreaction, but his anger
flared again when he found the box was empty.
He yelled
at her, "Don't you know when you give someone a present,
there's supposed to be something inside it?
His daughter
looked up at him with tears in her eyes and
said, "Oh, Daddy, it's
not empty, I blew kisses into the box.
All for you, Daddy."
The father was
crushed. He put his arms around his
little girl, and he begged for her
forgiveness.
An accident took the
life of the child only a short time
later and it is told that the man kept
that gold box by his
bed for many years and whenever he was discouraged,
he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember
the love of the child who
had put it there.
In a very real sense,
each of us have been given a gold
container filled with
unconditional love--love and kisses
from our children, our friends, our family or
from God.
There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.
Pass this on to those you care about.
Remind them what the most precious gift in the world is--
Unconditional Love.
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