And, these two “items”, are NOT bought by M-O-N-E-Y!!! From the Front Page Sections, translated…
I’d gone out to afternoon tea with a friend, she said she’d needed to, make the time, to get her kids Christmas presents, “Your children are older, you’d no longer need to give them presents for the holidays, one less worry for you.”
As she’d stated this, it’d reminded of how my daughters were young children, and as they did her bedtime prayers, she’d prayed, that Santa could bring her presents, and after they’re older, and knew that I was the one, playing Santa, they’d said to me, pretending they didn’t know it was me, “Don’t know if Santa knows that I wanted this or that………”
the presents in this article aren’t like these, they’re, intangible…not my photo…
As they get even older, they’d no longer received the presents from me, instead, they’d discussed with me, what presents they are to get their friends, and, whether if I’d given them the presents, or they’re discussing with me what presents they should get for their friends, they carried that joy on their faces that’s become, unforgettable to me.
As my friend heard me described, and asked me what presents she should get for her ow children, I’d told her, that there are, TWO presents that she’d definitely needed to get for her children.
The First Gift is, “Love & the Sharing Box”
A few days ago, I saw how this started in a certain elementary school in Taichung, where the children packed up the shoeboxes with the stationeries, or presents they’d bought, to give to the children living in the distant areas of Taidong, hoping that after the typhoon of August, they can still receive the presents before Christmas, and feel that there are others in the world who cared and loved them. In the past, my school would have this flea market before the holidays, as the children sent the gifts or the money to the social welfare organizations, they’d told me, “It feels amazing, being able to help others!”, before the Chinese New Year’s, we’d work together, with Genesis Foundation and the Huashan Foundation, encouraged the students to save up the money for their snacks and drinks, and donate the amounts to help add more food items for the elderly who lived alone.
the values learned here, are sharing a good time with the family, loving each other, and the presents don’t really matter…not my photograph
“Gift-giving can make those who received the presents feel our love, but, for those givers, we’d gained, this enormous, intangible gift too, and that would be, the heart of what we’d shared with the world, and this is a special kind of a present, it’s a forever sort of a keepsake.” My friend nodded. She said, she’d given too many presents to her children regularly, and all her kids learned was, “wanting more”, and this year, she will take the kids, to sort through the presents, or buy an extra set, so the kids will learn to share.
The Second Present for My Children was, “The Ability to Plan Out Their Own Lives”. Remembered how when we were younger, I’d always get a present from dad, a dairy with a lock on it, and dad would always have me write down my wishes for the upcoming year, and he’d wanted me to look to the first page as the year ended, and ask myself if I’d reached my goals or not, and if my goals were realistic, too hard to reach, or was it that I simply didn’t work hard enough, then put down my plans on a brand new diary for the following year.
This sort of getting the SAME things for the holidays, had made me complain once; as I grew older, dad started giving me money, but, I’d gotten into the habits, and bought myself a notebook, and, continued to write down my plans for this brand new year and the goals I want to accomplish.
“The gift my dad gave me was no longer that simple diary anymore, it’s the ability, to set goals for myself, and to train me to reach the goals I’d set for myself.”, my friend nodded again, and smiled, and told me, the kids now no longer wrote in the diaries anymore.
Yup! My daughters saw me journaling since she was younger, and loved collecting the assortment of notebooks too, and would write a few pages, but I’d not forced them to write, instead, I’d help them keep the records, and discuss with them, the goals they’d set for themselves. In the process, the gift they’d received from me was the ability to plan out the things in their lives, and I’d gotten the chance, to be involved in the goings on of their live; now that they’re grown, I’d heard them talk of their goals, other than their goals at work, also the goals of what they wanted to achieve when they’re not working, and, in their vacation plans, they’d included us, the parents.
“Mom, dad, we’re going on a trip next year, we’d decided that we will meet on this day of every month, you two need to show up!”, that, was the gift our daughters gave to us this year.
Do you know now, what gifts you’ll be giving out this year?
So, this is on how parents can SET the values for their young, by being an example for their young to follow, and, these two “gifts” mentioned above are very important, they would help your children in ways you can’t even imagine, because these gifts teaches them how to share, and it’d helped them gain the abilities that they will carry throughout their lives, something they can use forever, which is WAY better than ANY kind of monetary gifts, because money and gifts will be used up or become out-of-date, but, these values will keep on being useful in your own young’s lives.
Life, the Obstacle Course 