The things we value

If you have been following our blog, you will know that for my daughter, Valerie's, 30th birthday, I provided her with 30 gifts that went along with 30 letters to her that I personally wrote about things I have learned over the many years I have lived. These are the things I want her to remember and to pass down to her children and her children's children. It was quite an experience getting this together. There were so many thoughts that I had that I wanted to share so I had to condense them to the really important ones. Perhaps I will ask Valerie to list them for you so you can read down the titles of them to see my thoughts. As I was writing these letters, I really came to think about what it was that I valued. We go along in our lives living every day and not always reflecting on what it is that we value most. So this was a great exercise for me, as well as a marvelous gift for my daughter. I would love to encourage all of you to start a little journal and start writing down your thoughts about life and what YOU value. You may eventually want to share this with your children as a timeless rememberance of who you are and were. You can compile it into a book or even illustrate some of your ideas. For me, I included a gift that represented each thing I valued. One of the most interesting parts of all of this I would like to share with all of you.

On Valentine's Day, I decided to give Valerie a letter about Love. Along with this letter came a small gift, a heartfelt gift. This gift was a small gold locket with a small diamond in the center given to me by my parents when I graduated 8th grade. It is now "vintage" as I guess I am becoming... slowly, I hope. I was really excited to give her this gift but the little voice inside of me kept saying "will she like it? will she think it is just a piece of junk? " As doubts poured through my mind Valerie came over to visit that same day. Unbelievably, she announced upon her arrival "Did you see the February Martha Stewart magazine?" I had it but did not have time to read it yet so she grabbed it an opened the page to an article on "Vintage Lockets." You cannot imagine my shock given that she had no idea of what the gift was that I was preparing to give her. She excitedly showed me the beautiful lockets on each page and announced that she was going to be searching for these lockets because she liked them so much. I was ecstatic, to say the least! I totally agreed with her that we should try to find one and it would be fun looking for it. Inside, I was laughing and praising God that He had revealed to me that when I do something out of love there is no reason to doubt my actions. When love is our motivation there is little that can go wrong. So I waited for the "big day" to offer my gift of love to her along with my letters. She was so surprised and we both had a great laugh and shared a lot of love that day.

The other day I stopped over her house and there she was, wearing the little locket I gave her. At that moment, I realized that the love my parents gave to me was being passed down to the next generation.

P.S.
If you are interested in seeing the Martha Stewart article on vintage lockets, see below:
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/love-tokens-pretty-vintage-lockets