Gifts and Flowers

I'm not the best gift giver. I try, and I want to give good gifts...but apparently, gift-giving is not one of my gifts. (Lame pun intended.) I don't send cards to my friends on their birthdays. I buy wedding gifts an hour before the wedding, or sometimes just put money in a card I purchase on the way to the wedding, or even at the drugstore in between the wedding and reception. Even my "well-thought-out" attempts have not brought glee to my receivers. My husband has disliked almost every gift I've purchased for him in the last 15 years. So, in some cases it's my disorganization and procrastination that's causing the gift-giving deficiency. And, in other cases, it's my cluelessness as to what my loved ones will love. (Example: I brought my brother such lousy gifts every year of his life that the one time I bought a good one, he didn't even try to hide his shock. He held it up and said, "This is awesome! Did you really buy this? This is from you?")I am pathetically gift-giving challenged.

So, you can understand my dismay, when on the first day of school, I looked in my mailbox to see the committee sign-up sheet. All the blanks were full except one. The Gift and Flower Committee. And all the names were crossed off the list of those who were expected to sign up for their duties, except one. Mine.

This put a major wrench in my I'm Just Gonna plans. I really "didn't wanna" have any part of the Gift and Flower Committee, and despite all my promises and determination to not complain and to start the year positive, I whined and protested a little. It's not that I mind doing my part. I don't. I would serve on other committees. It's just that I am so inadequate, so ill-equipped, so out of touch with the social-goings-on at work. I mean, in addition to my gift-giving deficiencies, I am the last person to know when anything happens at work or in the lives of my co-workers. It's really all I can do to get my own family where they need to be each day and to tend to their needs. So, it is a very real possibility that I will inadvertently miss some important event in someone's life. The flowers or card won't be sent...the gift will not be purchased. That would be horrible, and I am living in fear of that very thing.

The Bible says that we are a "new creation in Jesus". And, you know, He chooses some funny ways to work in our lives to make us that new creation. So, I'm sure it's no accident that I'm on the Gift and Flower Committee. It's meant to stretch and grow me into a more organized, conscientious, gift-giver. And, even though I was at the local grocery store choosing a card for Boss's Day (which was yesterday, in case you didn't know...I mean doesn't everyone know that?) at 7:30a.m. yesterday morning...all was well. The gift and card were delivered. And, hopefully our boss was blessed...'cause blessing others really is what giving gifts is about, right?

I'm Just Gonna...I'm Just Gonna...I'm Just Gonna...