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Giving and Receiving Gifts: God’s Blessings This Christmas · Arise Women of God

• 0:01
  Ladies, with all the gift giving this holiday season, have you paused to think what makes a truly good gift similar to perhaps some of the gifts that God gives us?
• 0:15
  With Christmas just a few days away, we're focused on buying gifts, wrapping gifts, making gifts, delivering gifts, and even hiding gifts.
• 0:26
  But in all the hustle, it's important to pause and think about the most important gifts.
• 0:31
  And today we're going to talk about the difference between truly giving a gift and creating one and how that can mirror what God wants to give you and have you receive this holiday season.
• 0:47
  By the end of this episode, you will be able to bother know how to better give and receive gifts.
• 0:56
  Stay tuned.
• 0:59
  Are you a woman who knows God is calling you to something more, but you're unsure where to start or how to grow it into something impactful?
• 1:08
  You are not alone and you're in the right place.
• 1:11
  Welcome to the Arise Women of God Podcast, a show for Christian women who feel called to shine his light and step into their divine purpose.
• 1:22
  Each week you'll hear stories of faithful women, both from the Bible and today, who heard God's voice and chose to say yes even when it felt uncomfortable or uncertain to step with faith into the unknown.
• 1:36
  You'll walk away with encouragement, spiritual insight, and practical steps to follow those holy promptings in your own life.
• 1:45
  So let's arise together as women warriors of light.
• 1:49
  Let's do it God's way.
• 1:51
  God strong.
• 1:56
  Hello and welcome back to the Arise Women of God Podcast.
• 1:59
  I'm your host, Tamara K.
• 2:00
  Anderson, and I'm so excited for this episode today, you guys.
• 2:04
  With Christmas happening this week, this episode is very appropriate.
• 2:09
  Today I'm going to kick it off by sharing a nostalgic story about a gift that I was given.
• 2:15
  And then I'm going to share a story about a gift I recently made for my daughter and and how that changed my perspective on the gift giving season this year.
• 2:26
  And finally, we're going to look at a Bible verse in James that teaches us some very interesting things about giving good gifts from a spiritual perspective.
• 2:38
  All right, let's kick it off with the first thing I'm going to start off by asking, do you remember a favorite gift that you received from your childhood?
• 2:47
  Perhaps at Christmas time, maybe a birthday?
• 2:50
  Well, today I'm going to share a story with you that I shared in a recent workshop on spiritual gifts.
• 2:58
  And it is.
• 2:59
  It takes you back in my childhood to a gift I received.
• 3:04
  Let's take a listen.
• 3:05
  And as I paused and I thought about that this morning, you know, my brain Kind of went back to being a little kid and wanting a Cabbage Patch Kid doll, because that's the era that I grew up in.
• 3:18
  And they were super popular little doll back in the mid-80s.
• 3:23
  And I remember I wanted that, and I got it for Christmas one year, and I was so tickled pink.
• 3:28
  And the reason I was so excited was I just really wanted it.
• 3:32
  And I was a very creative, play type young girl, and I really wanted to play with that with my sisters.
• 3:41
  And we all got a Cabbage Patch Kid doll that year.
• 3:44
  And the bestest thing ever, ladies.
• 3:48
  I loved that doll because it was something I wanted so very, very much, and I used it right, and that made it a wonderful gift for me.
• 3:57
  The best gifts are the ones that we just desire so greatly.
• 4:02
  And what a blessing it is when somebody notices that and gives that to us.
• 4:10
  But I want to share with you a recent experience I had.
• 4:13
  This holiday season has been busy, and with adult children, it's not as easy to buy gifts as it was when they were little.
• 4:20
  And so, as we approach this holiday season, believe me, I have bought a lot of things on Amazon or on different websites for my children.
• 4:29
  And while I was in the midst of planning Christmas gifts, God reminded me of a different kind of gift that I could give.
• 4:39
  And I need to take you back in time again.
• 4:43
  About eight to ten years ago, my daughter decided to redo her bedroom, and we decided to make a quilt for her bed with these beautiful turquoise and purple and blue colors.
• 4:55
  It's just.
• 4:56
  It's lovely.
• 4:58
  And earlier this year, I was sitting on her bed and we were chatting, and I happened to notice that the edges of the quilt had totally frayed.
• 5:06
  Like there were holes in it, there were strings hanging out.
• 5:10
  The.
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  The batting was coming out in some places.
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  And I was just like, whoa, what happened?
• 5:15
  And.
• 5:15
  And she had basically just loved this quilt.
• 5:19
  The.
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  The body of the quilt was good.
• 5:21
  It was just the edges that were frayed.
• 5:24
  And I didn't think anything of it after that.
• 5:27
  But as we approached Christmas, all of a sudden, this idea popped in my head.
• 5:31
  Thank you, God.
• 5:32
  Right?
• 5:33
  And the idea was, why don't you take that and rebind the quilt?
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  And I thought, oh, I haven't even pulled out my sewing machine in a million years.
• 5:43
  Because, let's be honest, podcasting takes time.
• 5:47
  And so I.
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  I went through my.
• 5:50
  And I didn't have anything that quite matched it well enough.
• 5:53
  And I went to the fabric store and I found something that worked close enough and bought the material and spent the time cutting and ironing and making the binding for it again.
• 6:06
  And yesterday I sewed it all up, and it just looks beautiful, the color.
• 6:14
  I put a purple around the edges instead of a light blue, and it just makes the quilt pop again.
• 6:19
  And I can't even tell you how different this gift has been for me to make Christmas more exciting.
• 6:29
  And I think the reason it's been more exciting for me as the giver of the gift, to give this to my daughter is because there's a personal connection to it.
• 6:39
  Right.
• 6:39
  She helped me pick the colors for it originally, and so I feel so very thankful that God inspired me to do this, and it's given me kind of that joy of Christmas back.
• 6:52
  It's not just a sweatshirt I bought online that they said they wanted.
• 6:56
  This is something that's kind of a little bit of a surprise, but yet I knew it needed.
• 7:00
  I knew she wanted it.
• 7:01
  I knew she needed it to happen.
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  And the joy of seeing her open that and just go, oh, this is perfect.
• 7:07
  Right?
• 7:08
  It was so, so fun.
• 7:12
  And it's probably my favorite gift that I have given this holiday season.
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  Now, part of what made this gift so amazing this holiday season is one, I knew her really well.
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  I knew that this is something she would like.
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  Two was the effort that I put into it.
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  It wasn't just a click on Amazon, although that's great.
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  But third, I poured a little bit of myself into this gift.
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  And sometimes time is the best gift we can give.
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  And.
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  And fixing this is a great gift of love mixed with time, and that can be sensed in a gift.
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  It wasn't just gratitude for the object that I gave.
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  It wasn't just gratitude for the quilt.
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  It was the connection of the quilt to me.
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  And it symbolized my love, my love for my daughter.
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  And this brings me to my third point, the Father of Lights.
• 8:07
  So there's a beautiful scripture in James, chapter one, verse 17, that talks about gifts coming from a very specific person.
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  Now, listen carefully, because it's not a name we usually hear.
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  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights.
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  Listen to how we discuss this in the workshop.
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  God really loves his children, and he loves to give those good gifts.
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  And when my life is hard, I will ask him, what is the gift in this?
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  Or what is the miracle in this?
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  Or where are you in this thing?
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  Because I know you love to give good gifts.
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  And.
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  And I'm always blessed with some small nugget that he has placed in there because I was willing to look.
• 9:04
  I love that he is described as the Father of Lights in this particular verse.
• 9:09
  I mean, how often do we hear that in the Scriptures?
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  Not very often.
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  It is not a title we.
• 9:14
  And yet if I think of God as a being of light and that light permeating down and touching me, I almost feel like that helps me see and understand how that gift can come.
• 9:29
  Because he is my Father and that he shines that gift down into my life when I need it.
• 9:36
  And often it's in the hard times to develop and strengthen perhaps a weakness, you know, that.
• 9:44
  That I and but that it's coming out of his goodness, out of his light, and it can infuse me and penetrate through me and purify me and sanctify me to become a better person.
• 9:58
  One of the things I love about God, the Father of Lights, is he doesn't just Amazon prime blessings to us, he crafts them.
• 10:08
  He takes time.
• 10:09
  He knows who we are as individuals, as women, as his daughters.
• 10:15
  He's so very aware of us.
• 10:17
  And he shines those blessings and gifts down into our souls, into our lives.
• 10:25
  They often help us grow into the women he knows we can become.
• 10:29
  But the key with gifts from God is that even though he knows exactly what we need, we need to be willing to receive the gift.
• 10:42
  Received the gift from the Father of Lights.
• 10:46
  And this has made me think of the often sung Christmas carol, Joy to the World, where it invites earth to receive her king.
• 10:56
  So the beautiful thing about all of this gift giving this holiday season is that once you have received the gift of God, the Father of Lights, the beauty is once you have received him, received the light, it lights
• 11:12
  your mind, your body, your heart, your soul.
• 11:16
  And you can't help but shine God's light and love to those around you.
• 11:23
  Because I believe love is the greatest gift we can give this holiday season.
• 11:29
  So with those gifts that you give on Amazon, be sure to express your love, follow those impressions, to send your love via text, via email, via a Christmas card, through a gift, through a package, and give those hugs
• 11:46
  and share God's love and shine his light.
• 11:49
  It is a gift he has given freely to you.
• 11:52
  And once you have received it, you have more than enough to share and shine it with others.
• 11:58
  Now, if you want to kick off.
• 12:00
  This new year with a clear vision of what God is crafting specifically in you, I have a free gift for you.
• 12:07
  It is our new guide discerning my gifts and strengths, and it's available on the Women warriors of Light website.
• 12:15
  I'll drop a link below in the show notes it's full of scriptures and prompts to help you see yourself as God sees you.
• 12:24
  You can find it on our store in the Women warriors of Light website.
• 12:27
  Stay tuned next week for a discussion on the spiritual gifts we can be asking for as we dive into this new year.
• 12:34
  God bless you to be full of light and love this holiday season.
• 12:40
  Thanks for tuning in to the Arise Women of God podcast brought to you by Women warriors of Light.
• 12:46
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• 12:59
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• 13:01
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• 13:05
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• 13:07
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• 13:10
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• 13:13
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• 13:15
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• 13:18
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• 13:19
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• 13:23
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• 13:25
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• 13:30
  Until next time.
• 13:31
  May you arise, walk God's way and stand God strong.