{"id":13763,"date":"2012-12-20T01:43:47","date_gmt":"2012-12-20T06:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?p=13763"},"modified":"2012-12-20T01:44:12","modified_gmt":"2012-12-20T06:44:12","slug":"12-pearls-of-christmas-day-7-when-god-wraps-a-present-by-julie-lessman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?p=13763","title":{"rendered":"12 Pearls of Christmas | Day 7 – When God Wraps a Present . . . by Julie Lessman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"12PearlsOfChristmas\"<\/a>Welcome to the 12 Pearls of Christmas blog series!<\/b><\/p>\n

Merry Christmas from Pearl Girls\u2122<\/a>! We hope you enjoy these Christmas \u201cPearls of Wisdom\u201d from the authors who were so kind to donate their time and talents! If you miss a few posts, you\u2019ll be able go back through and read them on this blog throughout the next few days.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re giving away a pearl necklace in celebration of the holidays, as well as some items (books, a gift pack, music CDs) from the contributors! Enter now on Facebook<\/a> or at the Pearl Girls blog<\/a>. The winner will announced on January 2, 2013 at the Pearl Girls blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls\u2122, please visit www.pearlgirls.info<\/a> and see what we\u2019re all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Mother of Pearl<\/i><\/a>,<\/i> Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace<\/i><\/a> or one of the Pearl Girls products<\/a> (all GREAT gifts!) to help support Pearl Girls.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

When God Wraps a Present . . .<\/b><\/p>\n

By Julie Lessman<\/b><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all heard the adage \u201cit\u2019s better to give than receive,\u201d but\u00a0never<\/i>\u00a0have I agreed more than the year I was engaged to the love of my life.<\/p>\n

It was truly a Christmas to remember\u2014spiced egg nog and snickerdoodles and shimmering presents unwrapped in a circle of love. Of course, we all ooohed and ahhhed over each gift opened, one at a time, reveling in the glow of excitement for giver and recipient alike.<\/p>\n

And then it was my turn. Everyone waited while I tore into a small box, anticipation fairly shimmering in my fianc\u00e9’s eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you like it?\u201d he asked, grinning like a little boy when I unearthed a very pretty silver watch.<\/p>\n

No.<\/i>\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s beautiful,\u201d I said with a shaky giggle, slipping it on and holding it up for everyone to admire. I quickly gave him a sweet kiss on the lips. \u201cThank you so much, babe\u2014what a perfect gift!\u201d<\/p>\n

Perfectly awful<\/i>, that is. You see, when you are a twenty-eight-year-old Type A career woman who is\u00a0very<\/i>\u00a0set in her ways, there are just some things you have to buy for herself\u2014books, costume jewelry, purses \u2026\u00a0a watch<\/i>.<\/p>\n

All right, yes, I\u2019ll admit it\u2014\u201chigh maintenance\u201d is my middle name because heaven knows I\u2019m one of the most particular people on the planet, especially when it comes to watches. They have to be digital, waterproof, have a day and date window, an alarm, chronograph, second hand, both silver and gold metal to wear with either silver or gold jewelry, stretch band skinny enough to fit my wrist . . . and a GPS. Okay, I\u2019m pulling your watch chain on the last one, but you get the picture\u2014NOT easy to find, especially with numbers big enough for someone blind as a bat.<\/p>\n

So, yes, I faked it, of course, thanking my soon-to-be husband for the \u201cprettiest watch I had ever owned,\u201d because it was\u2014I just didn\u2019t like it. But did I \u201cfake it\u201d with God? Uh, no. I went straight to His throne in prayer and\u00a0begged<\/i>\u00a0Him to help me love this watch because the man I loved gave it to me and I just flat-out didn\u2019t want to hurt his feelings. I even went so far as to write the prayer request on a piece of paper and put it in my Bible so I could \u201cwrap\u201d it in prayer every single day, which I did.<\/p>\n

Until the fateful moment years later when my husband used my Bible one day and found the note.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t like your watch??\u201d he says, confronting me with hurt in his tone while his eyes flicked to the pretty watch on my wrist.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d I asked, somewhat confused.<\/p>\n

He held up the note. \u201cYou told God you hated it in this note I found in your Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uh-oh . . . BUSTED!<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, babe,\u201d I said with my brightest smile and a quick kiss on the lips. \u201cThat was then and this is now. It\u2019s perfect for me, just like you, and I absolutely love it.<\/p>\n

And you know what? I did!!<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Award-winning author of \u201cThe Daughters of Boston\u201d and \u201cWinds of Change\u201d series, Julie Lessman was ACFW\u2019s 2009 Debut Author of the Year and voted #1 Romance Author of the year in\u00a0Family Fiction\u00a0magazine\u2019s 2012 and 2011 Readers Choice Awards. Winner of 14 RWA awards, she also appeared on\u00a0Booklist\u2019s 2010 list for Top 10 Inspirational Fiction and has just released her 7th<\/sup>\u00a0novel,\u00a0A Light in the Window: An Irish Christmas Love Story. You can contact Julie at\u00a0<\/i><\/b>her website<\/i><\/b><\/a>, on\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Facebook<\/i><\/b><\/a>, on Twitter at @julielessman,\u00a0or read excerpts of her favorite romantic and spiritual scenes from each of her books at\u00a0<\/i><\/b>http:\/\/www.julielessman.com\/excerpts\/<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the 12 Pearls of Christmas blog series! Merry Christmas from Pearl Girls\u2122! We hope you enjoy these Christmas \u201cPearls of Wisdom\u201d from the authors who were so kind to donate their time and talents! If you miss a few posts, you\u2019ll be able go back through and read them on this blog throughout […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13763"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13800,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13763\/revisions\/13800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}