The greatest gift you can give to someone

Everyone has the need to be appreciated and loved, even if we try to deny it sometimes.

When we receive gifts, we are filled with a sense of love. It makes us feel appreciated and loved.

That is why every celebration of love and life is marked with gift-giving and receiving. 

Gifts are a way of expressing what people mean to us, although sometimes, we give gifts out of obligations.  However, when the gifts are voluntarily given, they carry a wealth of meaning.

What we give as gifts matters.  It important that deliberate thoughts be put into giving a gift to someone you love. Sometimes, as funny as it may seem, some of the best gifts cannot be bought by money.

Time has shown that the most intangible things usually make the best gifts. 

Spending time with a loved one, making time to attend the things that matter to them, fixing something they have always wanted to get fixed, calling them, texting them, sending little love notes just because.

Being there for them physically or emotionally.

These things you can’t buy with money, but they are gifts. 

Funny how sending someone a playlist of all their favourite songs might rank up there with buying them jewellery.  It is almost baffling, yet, pleasing how non-monetary gifts can make a person feel loved and appreciated.

Sometimes, the greatest gift you can give another person is simply to include them.

Many times, we leave our loved ones feeling unloved and unneeded when we keep them out of the loop of our lives.

We have become an ironic generation.

On the one hand, most of us have our entire life played out to the world via social media, yet we keep those close to us excluded from the things that matter.

That is why now more than ever, including the people you love is a powerful gift.

Knowing how fussy or particular we can get about our privacy (given how exposed social media can make us feel), including the special in our lives carry a lot of weight.

When you go out of your way to include a person in the things that are important to you, it speaks of sacrifice which comes from loving a person.

The sacrifice of giving up one’s privacy, and opening the door into one’s life can be a wonderful gift.

Deciding to include people in your life can be a bit scary at first, especially if you are a really private person. The first step is to make the decision to include them. Next, you start slowly. The gift of including people in your life requires you to create space for them, to consider them in decisions you will otherwise have taken independently.

It will take some getting used to, so take your time, but be deliberate about including them.

You have to consciously do it.

It can start from simple things, like asking their opinions on small decisions. You do this not because you are indecisive, but because you want to include them in your life. 

In doing this, you are sending a very distinctive message: that they are special and you want them in your life.