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Have you created your "Gifts from God List" ?

 The day before Thanksgiving is one of my kids favorite days of the year.  This is the day they write out their "Christmas List" for Santa because they know that mom and dad help Santa by getting the Black Friday deals.  They eagerly write out all their desires on that piece of paper.  And when I say all the desires, I mean it.  One of my kids has asked Santa for a live horse on their list for 3 years now.  It doesn't matter how many times we tell her that isn't even a possibility she still writes it out.  She believes Santa wants to hear everything she wants even if it isn't a realistic ask.


Last night we rushed in the door from cutting down our Christmas tree in order to watch The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints First Presidency's Christmas Devotional.  Sister Craig was the first speaker and her talk spoke to my heart!!  She spoke of using our gifts that God has blessed us with.  I absolutely loved that she had her little 6 year old granddaughter play the violin.  Our gifts don't have to be perfectly polished to share.  We just need to use the gift we've been given.  Though I will say that her granddaughter did a spectacular job and was nicely polished :)

This talk made me think of Zac cleaning out the girls room the other day to find boxes of Christmas presents under their bed that they haven't used all year.  It made me question myself:

How often am I shoving God's gifts under my bed?  

Unfortunately, I'm afraid this happens more times then I'd like to admit.  There are things that I feel he has given me that I personally am too embarrassed to share.  There are so many other people who can do it better than me and so I justify that they can do it.  But just as I didn't like finding all those old Christmas gifts under my kids bed, I'm sure it disappoints God when I don't use the gifts he has given me.

Am I even recognizing when he has given me a gift?  

Last night Zac gave me a blessing in preparation for a small surgery I'm having today.  One of the things I was reminded about is that my struggle with health is a gift from God.  How can something bad and hard be a gift from God?  Well, the blessing went on to remind me that through this struggle with my health, my relationship with Him has strengthened in ways it wouldn't have without the struggle.  I personally have not looked at this struggle with my health as a gift from God, but I'm so grateful the Lord reminded me of that last night.  It has made me want to ask more to know what other gifts has he given me that I don't recognize in my life and how have they blessed me.

As I continued to think about this talk, my heart was filled with a couple of ideas to do with my family this year.  

  1. The first thing I want to do as a family is to write down 1-2 gifts God has given us over the years and wrap them under the tree.  Then as we think of more gifts we can write them down and place them under the tree.  My hope is by Christmas, our tree will be filled with more gifts from God than from Santa.
  2. The second thing is to start my "Gifts from God List".  This will be like a Christmas List but instead of asking Santa for it, I will be asking God.  What are gifts that I don't have in my life yet that I would like to have?  What gifts have I been given that I need to improve or be added upon? What gifts am I not recognizing in my life?


I want asking God to be the most important thing my children learn from me!  I want them to understand that he wants to hear ALL desires.  He wants to know about the horse even though it's a dream.  He wants to hear about the needs.  He wants to hear about the wants.  He wants to hear about everything in our lives.

I hope that you will create your "Gifts from God List" this year.  I hope that you will be as anxiously engaged in that list as your kids are in their Santa lists.  I hope that you will be watchful and recognize when the Lord leaves you His gifts!

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