When a child receives a gift, what is their first response? They want to play with it or put it to use immediately. Yet on special gift-giving occasions adults will tell them to put it aside because there are other gifts to open.
And so the adults shift the emphasis from enjoyment to acquisition. When all the gifts are open and the child says, ‘is that all there is?’ they appear to be grasping and greedy, but they are responding as they have been taught. Be careful not to teach this behavior to your children and search yourself to see if it is in you. You know that I am the ultimate source of gifts. You honor me by using and enjoying what I have given you.
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