the best gifts

I've had a lot of feedback from our RS Christmas party last week. People were really touched by the things I said, which makes me so happy because I really wanted to do it right and make it something special and holy. One girl said she thought I should write it down and sent it to the Ensign. I don't think I'll do that, but I do think I'll write it down so I can remember it...at least the gist of it. So, I think this is close to what I said...

Our theme for the night is on "The Best Gifts" and I really wanted to focus on gifts of the Spirit. I've had a lot of time to ponder and pray about what I should say and what might help you feel the spirit of Christmas. We talk a lot about giving gifts as a way to feel the spirit of Christmas, and that is true. But I believe that there are gifts we can also see, should seek, to help us feel that spirit.

These spiritual gifts are not talents. I'm not talking about desiring the ability to play the piano, paint pictures or decorate a house beautifully. I'm talking about gifts that will help us to become more like the Savior and that often come in simple, unadorned ways.

The first gift we should seek is the gift of faith to produce miracles. In Matthew 15:27-28 we read about Jesus's conversation with the woman of Caanan. Her child was sick and "vexed with a devil" and she came to the Lord asking him to heal her. To her, the Savior said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of Isreal" and "It is not meet to take the childrens' bread and cast it to dogs." Her humble answer showed her faith and great desire for this blessing for her daughter. "And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs of the masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt."

This woman of Canaan had great faith. And her faith produced a miracle. With that faith she could have asked for anything her heart desired. The Lord did not limit her to just that single blessing, I believe, when he answered her by saying, "be it unto thee, even as thou wilt." We should seek to have the gift of faith sufficient to produce miracles in our lives.

The next gift we should seek is the gift to be sustained by Living Waters. In John 4: 10 we read about the Samaritan woman Christ met at the well. When she was asked to dip water for him, she asked him why he would talk to her, a Samaritan. She was told, "If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.... The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw."

Christ commanded her to seek after that help that would be lasting and sustaining. We can seek after our diet cokes to sustain us on our days of stress, or in times of trial, or we can seek the gift of being sustained by living water and thirst not.

We should also seek the gift of healing and the gift to be made whole. we know the story of the woman with the issue of blood. We know she suffered for many years adn heard that Jesus was coming. And we know that she thought that if she could just get close enough to touch the hem of his garment that she felt like she could be healed. Yet, when she was asked about her touching him, the Savior said, "Daughter be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." We should seek to be healed. We should seek to have the Savior make us, our lives, our families, our marriages whole. I know that he can do that for us if we seek it. And I know that when we feel we are being healed and made whole, we can have peace.


We should seek to see the good and have an eternal perspective. Eve desired to see as God sees. And to gain knowledge, so she ate the fruit. In her eating the fruit she was expelled from the garden and told her life would now be filled with trials and tribulation, that she would experience pain and sorrow and death, and that she would now have to work for the very food she needed to live. But the gift she received for desiring to see good from evil was an eternal perspective. She said, "Were it not for our transgression we never should have known good and evil, adn the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient."

Eve learned that in seeking to do good and be good that her trials and tribulations were good and she knew she would be redeemed. She knew that her misery wouldn't last forever, and that she could overcome. She was blessed with an eternal perspective; and we would do well to seek after that gift.

Lastly, I want to talk about Mary, the mother of God and the gift that she received, a gift that we should seek. Mary was visited by an angel. She was told she would conceive and bear the Son of God. She was scared, and wanted to know how it would happen. She was instructed as to how this would occur and Mary answered, "Behold the handmade of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."

Then some time passed and Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. And somewhere between her visit with the angel and her visit with Elizabeth Mary received a spiritual gift that is evidenced by her conversation with her cousin. When Elizabeth said, "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Mary's answer reveals her gift. She says, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; adn holy is his name. And mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation."

Mary was given the gift of seeing her place in God's plan, her divine worth, and, the role she played in helping with the salvation of man. And she wasn't bragging or arrogant when she said those things to Elizabeth. She was filled with humility and gratitude for the great work she got to be a part of and for the great things God would do with her and through her.

Each of us should seek after that gift. we should seek to understand what it is that God plans to do with us, and what role we play in his plan. We should seek to be filled with gratitude for our divine potential and the realization that through us God can do great things with us. And we should seek to not be ashamed of those gifts.

At this Christmas season, where we seek and give gifts, I suggest that by seeking these gifts we will draw closer to Christ and become more like him. And when we become more like him we will have his spirit; which is the source of the spirit of Christmas. And when we become like him, and have his spirit, we can have the spirit of Christmas all year.