Recently I experienced the privilege of giving a gift that was criticized by the recipient. It was clear that my homemade gift was NOT what the recipient wanted, despite the time and energy it took for me to make it. It hurt me a lot and made me rethink if I wanted to continue to give that person homemade gifts when it was so obvious they didn’t appreciate it.
After Greg and I said our Rosary, I thought about this situation as I fell asleep. Should I have notified the recipient that I was working on something homemade? I felt upset that I had “wasted” so much time and effort to make the gift in the first place. And while I know everyone has their own tastes and the like, couldn’t they at least hate it behind my back and not make it so obvious in front of me?
I don’t know if that would make anything better, if I was under the assumption that they liked it!
I got to thinking about all the gifts I’ve received from God and haven’t been exactly happy with. A lot of times I’ve done the gift horse mouth mentality with Him. “Gee, thanks for that but don’t You know X, Y, and Z?” How many times have I received a Gift from God and haven’t realized it’s potential for my spiritual growth and just sort of stuck it in my spiritual closet, only to take it out from time to time.
Naturally, there is the most precious Gift of all – how often do I thank Him for it? Or do I just take Him for granted? It’s something to think about.
I don’t think of God as the vending machine in the sky – I’ve come to realize that His Will is the best way, and as long as I accept it; things will always turn out for us. I don’t want my reaction to His gifts to be the same that I got. Even though I got hurt in the process, I definitely learned a good lesson – I need to thank God more often for what I have, what I don’t have, and everything in between.
