“The RoseBouquet”

In casting about for another gift-making project to suggest to you, I came across this article I wrote a few years ago;
Gift of Your Time. It’s all about how you can evaluate what your time is worth and consider that sometimes the best gift is a gift of your time.

Amen! That may seem especially true if you are a very busy person, and have some valuable skill that is much in demand, but do you know that in God’s sight your time is valuable too, even if you consider yourself a nobody with hardly any skill at all? You need to get a new grasp of the value of your time and how you spend it. It may well be the most precious possession you have.

My cat Snowflake has been showing me that we all need - really need human touch. Not only cats, but people all around us are starved for some real human -someone with skin on, not an invisible spirit, to come spent some time with them.

Sure, there will be people who need someone with great medical skills or training, or a great way with words or with numbers to come help them solve some problem or move forward in their career. But for every one of those people there will be at least 100 others who care not a whit what you know or can do. They merely need someone to spend some time listening and talking with them, and treating them as if they are a worthy human being too.

“Like what?” you may be asking suspicious of where I’m going with this.

Okay, let’s look at some examples.-

Do you know a handicapped person, or elderly person, who lives alone and finds it hard to do some simple things? Maybe trimming their finger or toe nails? Raking their grass? Stopping to pick up a few groceries when you go for your own? You could offer them a ride if you drive, or if you don’t, to travel with them on the bus.

But better still, they would like like for you to come by for coffee and cookies, and to visit and laugh and tell stories. Or when they phone, to just take the time to hear them out and speak encouraging words.

Perhaps you know a child who seems to be often at cross-purposes with everyone else. Such a child needs the quiet companionship of someone with lots of time to invest. You could help them get their bearings and learn to get along with others by practicing good behaviour with someone as patient as you.

If you think time is all you have to offer, I want you to see that it is a priceless stash of gifts you have to give every day.

Now, if you need motivation to remember to give your gift of time to someone, and if you want to give someone else the joy of anticipating your gift, then all you need to do to have a tangible gift to give at Christmas is to prepare some original certificates.

You can make them as plain or fancy as you like. If you can draw, decorate each certificate with fancy borders. If you can use a computer, you can design them there and print them out, or you can even buy them at the stationery store with about three or four certificates to a sheet. Think through what you would be willing to give in the way of time this next year, and write it out as a promise on the certificate.

If you want to look really generous you can make batches of them, and call them coupons. You might offer three for babysitting, or two trips to go shopping, or six coffee visits. It is really up to you to think over the person’s needs, and what you are willing to do.

If your time is worth $20 an hour, you can even add such a monetary value as a fun factor, but it might be more discrete in most situations not to flaunt such a value on your gift of your time.