Did anybody laugh?
	Did anybody cry?
	Did anybody want to hug you?

We all love gifts from God.  At least we love them when they’re what we've always hoped for and wanted. But I believes that we miss many of God's greatest gifts in ourselves and in our children because we fail to truly OPEN THE GIFTS.  

In the case of our children, we’re much more likely to take the gift of a child and place him on a shelf to admire and to compare to all the children God has given to others.  We want this gift box of ours to take on the shape we’ve seen in others, something familiar, something typical.  We're uncomfortable when our gift box isn't quite like all the others; when this child doesn't act, or think or learn like other children.

In the case of ourselves, we want our gifts to look exactly like the gifts we see in other women.  We don’t want our uniqueness to shine through.  We don’t want our differences to be noticed.

In taking these approaches we often step off the plan for which God designed us.

My goal is to convince you that these differences ARE the gifts…and to plunge into the delicious process of opening the gifts sent to us by our heavenly Father, learning to use our uniqueness to live out the wondrous plan made on our behalf.