Why The Best Give Ever

​Dear WHY Team member, 
Thinking of you during this very special time of year.

What was your Best Christmas Ever - and Why?
Was there one Christmas that wasn’t the best ever?

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Audio:🗣

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A few weeks back we talked about Thanks-giving, a day that hopefully encourages us to recognize how much we have been given and to give even more thanks than what we give daily; 
this week we consider For-giving. 

How interesting that our nations two major year-end holidays are first on gratitude at Thanksgiving and then on giving during Christmas; we first give thanks for the abundance so we can then more joyfully share it with others. 

Every Christmas season I watch the holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life and am reminded once again how easy it is to devalue ourselves.
In the movie, George cannot pay a debt and gets to the point of feeling worthless. As most of you know, only when he sees how the world would have been without him does he realize that he is far more valuable than his unpaid debts. In fact, in the end, he couldn't pay his debt - love paid his debt. First it was his love for what he did have rather than focusing on what was missing and then it was the loving overflow of generosity from others.
It's a story of the redeeming power of love and always brings me to tears. 

First, it is up to us to recognize that what we have already received is beyond what anyone could say they deserve; we need only see the abundance in our life to know this.
But if we choose to keep our balance sheets listing all the hurts others have done to us - it is we who will suffer needlessly, not to mention everyone around us. Luckily, for many of us it is easy to open our wallets and give, but are we opening our hearts and giving from there as well?

This season, consider giving the greatest gift of all - the gift of Forgiveness!

If anyone around you needs Forgiveness from you, nothing will empower you more to give them the gift of Forgiveness and subsequent Joy than to receive it for yourself.

When George found himself on that bridge, he only saw where he had failed, he wished he had never been born. Fortunately for him, he got a chance to see what never being born would have meant.

Your life, despite your faults and shortcomings, is far more valuable than you can ever imagine. 
You are a gift to the world. 
When you truly know this, you will want others to know this about themselves as well. Only through forgiveness for ourselves, and then for others, can we truly live A Wonderful Life - one that gives, one that serves, one that fulfills the WHY of our lives.

May forgiveness fill your heart and provide you, and the ones you love, a Very Joyous Holiday Season and a Very Happy New Year! 

Steve Luckenbach