"While we try to teach children all about life,
children teach us what life is all about." -Angela Schwindt
The excitement of children during the holidays is often contagious. It's hard to be a grinch when kids around me get caught up in the spirit of giving. Consider the following (true) story:
For several years our ward has sponsored a "Giving Tree" where the ornaments are tags with specific gift requests for underprivileged families. Ward members can look at the ornaments and decided whether they'd like to take home the tag to shop for a chemistry set for a 12 year old boy, crazy socks for a teenage girl, or toys for 4 year old twins, etc.
So, we take an ornament tag and return the following week putting the gift under the same tree.
On Sunday, Connor Holland noticed about 8 ornaments still left on the tree - even though our "Giving Tree" drive had officially ended last week. Connor pointed out to Julie that if they didn't take those 8 tags and buy those presents, some kids weren't going to get anything for Christmas!
How can you turn down a kid like Connor? He can be pretty persuasive! So, on Monday, Julie and Connor went shopping for all those tags from the giving tree that nobody took. Connor wants to make sure all those children have presents to open.
Connor's giving spirit and Julie's generosity makes me want to be more charitable. I have to confess that I walked right by the giving tree and didn't even notice that some of the ornaments were still up, waiting to be noticed. Sometimes it takes a child to see the things adults might overlook!
