Gifts...

Last year when I almost lost Kevin, Heavenly Father taught me how precious it is to have the time we've been given here in mortality. Life is a priceless gift from our Father in Heaven. That experience and the lessons through which Father has walked me, changed me forever.

As we've approached Christmas, my thoughts have turned to gifts – and no, not the ones wrapped in shiny paper, under the Christmas tree....I've been led (or inspired) to look for gifts in each day. I have a notepad on my desk where I've been jotting down gifts in my life as they've come to my mind. Some of those gifts include: the gift of new beginnings or “do-overs”, the gift of repentance, the gift of the Sacrament, the gift of consecration – or trying to be good like our Savior, the gift of the Nativity, the gift of family, the gift of grandchildren and getting to love them, the gift of a warm, cozy home on a cold winter day, the gift of a loving husband who “sees” me, and most of all, the gift of our beloved Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Finally, after noting down a list of gifts, the last is the one I settled on – the gift of a Savior.

Thinking of Jesus, I wondered about that moment in the Heavenly Counsel in the pre-mortal world when He stepped forward and said, “Here am I, send me.”. How much courage did that take – and how much love? What a gift He offered each of us in that moment!

From that moment and every day since, Jesus Christ has offered each of us the gift of a Savior – a chance to return to our Heavenly Father.

This is the “do-over” I spoke of. In this gift, we are given the gift of repentance. President Nelson spoke of the “joy of daily repentance”.

That's what I love about this gift of a Savior – from our Savior – we get to receive and use and be blessed by it over and over – every day.

Isn't that really the gift of Christmas? The gift of a Savior. As we accept His gift and use it to repent – to change and improve a little bit every day, we carry Christmas with us all year long.

That truly is the most precious gift of all!

Merry Christmas!