Can you remember, as a child, giving a present that you thought was wonderful to someone you loved?

And can you remember how their reaction affected you?

I can remember as a child, giving my Mum something that I thought was very appropriate and wonderful (I blush when I think of it now!) and her being so grateful for my thoughtfulness and love.

I felt so pleased and proud.

Being able to gracefully receive other's help, gifts, or care is as important a way of giving as being the one who always cares, helps, shares and gives is. It's also much harder to be on the receiving end and to show gratitude for it than it is to receive gratitude for what you have done.

Our daughter, now, is pretty disabled but I do my best not to do for her what she can do for herself. I believe that she has a right to give me a cup of coffee in her own house, to be the giver of hospitality not just the one who is always 'given to' because of her disability. It gives her pride in herself and pleasure to be able to be hospitable, in however limited a way.

To receive gracefully is as important a form of giving as giving tactfully is but it is a hard lesson to learn. A lesson we all have to learn as we get older and less able.

Some people have been givers and doers all their lives so learning to be a graceful receiver is really hard but the gift of graceful recieving "is twice blessed, it blesses him that gives and him that takes....."

Lord, help me, please, to be an unselfish giver and a graceful receiver so that through all the stages of my life I may be a blessing to others.