Gifts of the Heart

　　In this hustle-bustle world we live in, it's so much easier to charge something on a credit card rather than give a gift of the heart.

　　And gifts of the heart are especially needed during the holidays.

　　A few years ago, I began to prepare my children for the fact that Christmas that year was going to be a small one. Their response was, "Yeah sure, Mom, we've heard that before!" I had lost my credibility because I had told them the same thing the previous year, while going through a divorce. But then I had gone out and charged every credit card to the max. I even found some creative financing techniques to pay for their stocking stuffers. This year was definitely going to be different, but they weren't buying it.

　　A week before Christmas, I asked myself, "What do I have that will make this Christmas special?" In all the houses that we had lived in before the divorce, I had always made time to be the interior decorator. I had learned how to wallpaper, to lay wooden and ceramic tile, to sew curtains out of sheets and even more. But in this rental house there was little time for decorating and a lot less money. Plus, I was angry about this ugly place, with its red and orange carpets and turquoise and green walls. I refused to put money into it. Inside me, an inner voice of hurt pride shouted, "We're not going to be here that long!"