It never fails this time of year: what should be a time of renewal and hope often turns into a race of frantic proportions. To the mall, to the store, to the house, to the family, to the neighbor’s house, back to the store, and back to the mall, and to the grocery store, and to work, and to church, and to the wherever else there is to go… You should get the point: Life is happening all around us, and in many cases, if we aren’t paying attention, it can pass us by and leave us wondering, what happened? and where did it all go?

Every year we face the same memories that try to pull us down to a simpler time in our childhood, when the most important thing we could think of was getting an orange, an apple, hard candy, and maybe a candy cane if we were lucky in our stocking.

Presents were practical, and needed, and maybe something special that we really didn’t need. It was all planned out. Daddy could never wait until Christmas morning to wake us up. His prime time to wake us up was 3:00 A.M. Christmas Day. We got up easily enough, and often stayed up, but Daddy always went back to bed after we opened gifts.

Wrapping paper strewn all over the living room, usually stayed there until it was officially morning. In all of the years that we went through that routine before I left home, not once did I feel deprived or unloved because the gifts were scarce. It never crossed our minds to count the number of gifts that we each received, or the cost; everything was appreciated.

I look back on that time in my life and I realize just how blessed I was, and how blessed that I truly am. There is nothing that I need in this world that I don’t already have. My desires for this season is the gifts of hope, health, prosperity, and peace to all.

In this week’s Lattereign we are reminded that while gift exchanges are traditional, that Your Time is the Most Precious Gift.