Selected FOR You

There’s one choice better than your own... it’s the selection made for you by someone you love; a partner, one of your children or grandchildren, or a parent or grandparent or friend. One time I was given a homemade platter of tiny chocolates by one of my daughters. Because she had made the selections with deep consideration it meant my delight was doubled on receiving it.

This is why gifts have their allure—it’s the thought behind them that intrigues and impresses. It’s also why we remain disappointed by the selection of some gifts and things we receive—it’s because our expectations weren’t met. (Isn’t it peculiar that there is inbuilt sense to this within each of us? It is pure instinct most of the time.)

This is powerful to know on a couple of fronts.

Selections Made for You

Humility is tested in the receipt of things, especially those that don’t make the grade.

These can be items given haphazardly and without thought. Giving a female partner something with a cord in it that goes in the kitchen instead of the bathroom is a typical mistake a lot of men make. Men might see socks and underwear, whilst necessary, as uninspiring gifts. Cleverly thought about underwear for the female partner is maybe a different story.

It’s good to know that people will either wow us or disappoint us in the selections they make. It prepares our minds so they’re not disappointed in the responses we make. How deflating is it for them that they make selections that bring on disappointment? (Especially if they expect to wow that person.)

The key to remember is what motive was behind the selection. How creative and innovative were the thought processes? There is a quotient of love involved.

Selections You Make for Others

If the foregoing didn’t sweep us off our feet regarding the potential to hurt people by what we select for them I don’t know what will.

The reality is people do have expectations about what they’ll receive and they have preferences they want thought about and matched—even if it’s a subconscious thing on their parts.

The role of the selector is to take the thought time, adding to it an expanded vision, so that gifts and other things given are selected, dressed up and given in ways that inspire people regarding the use of imagination—which, again, defines a quotient of love; the measure of love that goes into the quality of the thought processes.

What’s in view here is simply the amount of personal thought devoted to another person. Yes, humility is again tested in the things we receive and those we give.

“Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

~2 Corinthians 9:7 (NRSV).

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.