When I was growing up I often heard the phrase, “Sometimes we have it and sometimes we don’t. Right now we do.”
This phrase came from my Dad, often after my reaction for receiving a “bigger than usual” kind of gift.
That phrase instilled something in me that I carry to this day.
This time of year people go nuts trying to outdo what they did the year before. The desire to “go bigger” to impress family and friends kick in.
The expectations we often (subconsciously) set around the number of gifts or amount of money we have to spend can put people into debt, often needing the entire New Year to recover it.
We should never correlate our worth to how many fancy presents we buy or whether or not we are able to top last years efforts.
That phrase, still used to this day, taught me this:
Though it’s good to continually raise the bar, especially with personal aspirations, sometimes, for a multitude of reasons, the bar simply has to be sustained.
Life isn’t always an upward trajectory and it doesn’t do any good to pressure ourselves to keep up with Joneses. Life is full of fluctuations and that’s OK.
For me, there wasn’t a difference between the times we had it and the times we didn’t, because we always had love and thoughtfulness.
The story below is a well known Christmas story that paints the picture of what really matters most this season.
I hope it resonates with you today, tomorrow and forever.
THE GOLD WRAPPING PAPER 🎁
An Inspiring Christmas Story
“Once upon a time, there was a man who worked very hard just to keep food on the table for his family.
This particular year a few days before Christmas, he punished his little five-year-old daughter after learning that she had used up the family’s only roll of expensive gold wrapping paper.
As money was tight, he became even more upset when on Christmas Eve he saw that the child had used all of the expensive gold paper to decorate one shoebox she had put under the Christmas tree.
He also was concerned about where she had gotten the money to buy what was in the shoebox.
Nevertheless, the next morning the little girl, filled with excitement, brought the gift box to her father and said, “This is for you, Daddy!”
As he opened the box, the father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, now regretting how he had punished her.
But when he opened the shoebox, he found it was empty and again his anger flared.
“Don’t you know, young lady,” he said harshly, “when you give someone a present, there’s supposed to be something inside the package!”
The little girl looked up at him with sad tears rolling from her eyes and whispered: “Daddy, it’s not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was all full.”
The father was crushed. He fell on his knees and put his arms around his precious little girl. He begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger.
An accident took the life of the child only a short time later. It is told that the father kept this little gold box by his bed for all the years of his life.
Whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems, he would open the box, take out an imaginary kiss, and remember the love of this beautiful child who had put it there.
In a very real sense, each of us has been given an invisible golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family, friends and God. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.”
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May God bless and protect our country and everyone reading.
Spread the love and share Project Breadcrumb Trail with your family and friends this holiday season.
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~MLO
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