A cell phone goes off in the middle of the sermon
Ironic, because the pastor preaches about peace of mind
A liberation from glowing screens and endless streams of information
A slower approach
to a rapid race.
“Presence, not presents” he asserts.
“Presence, not presents” he repeats.
Did we understand?
“…because your giving your time is so much more important than giving things.”
He’s right.
Sometimes it’s too easy to slide into the serve and return game of a commercialized holiday
Give get, give get, get give
And just in case they forgot
They’re open 24 hours.
She smiles biggest when she can run and jump outside with someone beside her
who can donate an hour or two to be a part of her play-pretend race track
He feels most loved when they sit together
lost in conversation
huddled by the fire eating their home-made Pinterest fails
Who knew people could (or even had) to take out loans just so they could buy things
that they thought they needed?
Who knew that the gifts that matter most don’t have glitter
or wrapping
or ribbon
or expiration dates
or lithium batteries?
Who knew that some of the most fortunate have the littlest fortune
in their financial institutions?
Their tender is tenderness,
kindness, faith, and love
Wouldn’t we be wise
to follow suit?
~
💚💝🌲💝💚
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a blessed holiday filled with family, food, love, laughter and friends. No matter your celebration, let’s remember the reason for the season isn’t something found on Amazon.
Love always,
Steph
strictly stephanie 
This. This is such a perfect reminder that really the best gift is kindness and time and love, not more junk that'll soon be forgotten. Lovely post!
Also, your comments on Whimsical Thoughts always make my day and I just realized that I'm following you on bloglovin, but for someone reason it hasn't updated since Summer, so I've missed all you posts :O Glad to discover you're still blogging and I cannot wait to see your future posts and catch up on your old ones. 🙂
Elizabeth
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Awww thank you Elizabeth! Here you are talking about comments making your day when this one has made mine (: So glad you mentioned the bloglovin' thing– I went in to investigate that and have now (hopefully!) updated the link between those platforms *whew*! As always, thank you for reading and I'm looking forward to reading your new stuff!!
xx
Steph
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