The Gift of Time

"Love is, above all, the gift of oneself."

This quote from Jean Anouilh was the basis of the elementary children's lesson today as they explored our second Unitarian Universalist Source of beliefs, expressed in children's language as "women and men of long ago and today whose lives remind us to be kind and fair."  They heard an often-quoted Christmas story from the life of UU minister and author Ralph Waldo Emerson.  When Emerson asked his daughter Emily what she wanted for Christmas, she responded with a riddle:  "You cannot buy it, for it is worth all the money you have, but only YOU can give it."  Emerson pondered that for quite a while, and finally concluded - correctly - that his daughter's wish was for the gift of his time, which he gladly gave her throughout the coming year.  Later in his life, Emerson would repeat that story often in his writings and from the pulpit. 

Today the children played a riddle guessing game, and made Gift of Time coupons to give to family members.  They added a new UU constellation to the Night Sky display:  a constellation of two stick figures joining hands, representing our second Source and the gift of love.

In another lesson on the gift of love, our middle school youth thanked the congregation for their extremely generous special collections the past two weeks (over $500 was donated as well as several boxes of food goods) and spent the morning shopping to fill the shelves of the local Food Pantry.

AT HOME IDEAS:  Start a new holiday tradition of gifting others with your time!  With your child, explore the topic together.  Is there a family member or friend who might especially appreciate the gift of your time?  Brainstorm ways your family can spend time together without spending a lot of money, such as planting a garden, going for a walk, reading books, playing games, etc.  Coupon booklets are one way to capture those gifts of time.  Another is to make a Give Love or Gift of Time jar, into which family members can deposit a piece of paper with a gift of time that the family can share together such as family movie night, or cooking dinner together.  Then once a week or so, have the family gather round to draw one slip and enjoy the gift of time together.  Or create a Give Love family scrapbook.  This is particularly appropriate at this holiday season when we have time to spend with extended family members, and can include interviews as well as multigenerational scrapbooking activities. 

In this era when a family's life can be filled to overflowing with one structured activity after another, giving our children the Gift of Time can be the most precious thing we can do.