Exchanging Gifts with God

This morning, I came to the realization that we can exchange gifts with God.

Giving God gifts is fairly easy. He accepts all gifts of service and righteousness, including even just attempts at righteousness. Gifts we can give God include repenting, being kind to others, and doing any good thing we can think of. God has a lot of gifts on His wishlist, and He's fairly easy to please.

He also frequently gives gifts to us. God's gifts to us include just about everything, from the air we breathe to the blessings of the Gospel. He sometimes even blesses us with miracles. But, if we broaden our definition of "miracle" and keep our eyes and hearts open, it becomes easy to see that God gives us gifts daily, and we should do the same for Him.

Of course, the most important part of a gift exchange is the gifts that we are giving, not the gifts we expect to receive. This isn't an actual exchange of gifts. We're not trading. It's possible to join into contractual agreements with God, where He covenants to give us some blessings in exchange for some gifts that we covenant to give Him, but that's not what I'm talking about right now. I'm talking about the voluntary giving of gifts on both sides that happens on a daily basis. In this case, we and God give each other gifts, not because we agreed to, but "just because." God gives us gifts because He loves us, and we should give Him gifts to show that we love Him.

I am thankful that God loves me enough to grant me so many wonderful blessings, and I'm thankful that He gave me such a wide variety of opportunities to show my thanks and love for Him. There are a great many blessings that we receive from God, and there are also many ways that we can bless Him in return. It's fun to give and receive gifts on Christmas, and I'm glad to know that we can give and receive gifts to and from God on every other day as well.