What is a gift?

One definition I found says that a gift is: Something given voluntarily without payment in
return.
Why do we give gifts?
1) To show favour toward someone you can do this any time, to show gratitude to
something someody has done or as a gesture of love.
!) To honour an occasion these are gifts such as the ones we have given recently to
celerate "esus# irth or on a irthday.
$) To ma%e a gesture of assistance I thin% this is the most rare reason to give
presents and yet to me it seems the most thoughtful.
James E Faust said:
We all enjoy giving and receiving presents. But there is a difference between presents and
gifts. The true gifts may be part of ourselvesgiving of the riches of the heart and mind
and therefore more enduring and of far greater worth than presents bought at the store.
Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his
shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful, !ounsellor, The mighty "od, The
everlasting Father, The #rince of #eace.$
I#m sure many of us have given gifts at this time of year, for many different reasons.
One of the reasons we give gifts is ecause of the &ise 'en who rought gifts of (old,
)ran%incense and 'yrrh to "esus. (old as we all %now is a precious metal. )ran%incense
and myrrh were sweet*smelling perfumes used in religious ceremonies. +ll three gifts were
valuale and difficult to otain. The &ise 'en wanted to ring "esus the nicest gifts they
could find.
&e give gifts as a representation of our love. These &ise 'en wanted to give only the
est gifts to show the magnitude of their love.
,eavenly )ather loves us all greatly and so his gift to us was greater than any rare metals
or perfumes. ,is gift was more valuale than all the gifts that we received yesterday.
John 3:16
For "od so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten %on, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Our ,eavenly )ather-s plan contains the ultimate e.pressions of true love. Our families
and friends, %nowledge and e.perience would vanish were it not for ,is Son. "esus is the
greatest gift the world has ever had. Sometimes we forget that he is as much as an
influence in our lives as he was when he was on the earth. The way "esus acted was a
perfect e.ample for us and as it said in "ohn, if we follow his e.ample we can gain
everlasting life, a gift that surpasses all material possessions.
/uring the summer: 'e, my rother (eorge and my cousin "oseph decided that we were
going to wal% to fo.ton loc%s from my cousin#s house. &e as%ed the 0ishop for directions
and he said 1"ust follow the canal, it#ll e 2uite a long wal%, getting on for ! hours, ut you#ll
end up at fo.ton loc%s.3 4early 5 hours later, we were still wal%ing and we couldn#t really
see fo.ton loc%s at all. &e came to a point where we could have carried on going along
the canal as instructed ut we decided to stray from the path, as we thought we %new
etter. &e oviously didn#t %now etter as another hour later we were sat y the side of a
road that none of us recognised. +ll three of us %new that we shouldn#t have ta%en that
turn ut we couldn#t go ac% now as someone had to open a few gates for us to get to the
road. Then we had a right idea, perhaps we should call for help. &e managed to get
hold of someone and e.plain where we were and then we got pic%ed up and ta%en home.
It#s not hard to see the analogy in this story, we are all given guidance throughout our life
and it is our choice whether we choose to follow that guidance or whether we thin% we
%now etter. "esus atoned for all our sins. ,e died so that we could live and one day we
will e ale to live with him. &e are so grateful to "esus 6hrist for what ,e did for us that
we honour ,is irth y celerating 6hristmas. &ith great 7oy, we also honour ,is
resurrection y celerating 8aster. There is another day we are going to celerate: the day
when "esus 6hrist will return to earth.
In my story, when we called for help, we didn#t get a lift to fo.ton loc%s. &e 7ust got ta%en
ac% as if we#d never left the path. The same is true with the atonement. "ust ecause
"esus has ta%en on our sins it doesn#t mean we get a free ride to the celestial %ingdom, we
still have to ma%e our own way there, it is 7ust made easier ecause we can repent of our
wrongdoings. 4oody is perfect and so repentance and forgiveness are oth gifts
themselves.
Gordon B !in"#$ey said:
&'t this time of !hristmas, this season when gifts are given, let us not forget that "od gave
(is %on, and (is %on gave (is life, that each of us might have the gift of eternal life&
Testimony.
I say these things in the name of "esus 6hrist. +men.