Or, as I tell my children, more than elephants and tomatoes. Teaching our children to value the heart within a gift has far- reaching consequences. Part of love is the ability to recognize love when others give it to us. Instead of coldly spurning others' gifts, or reacting with indifference, our hearts should be so sensitized that the smallest gift, given with a sincere heart, causes us to thoroughly appreciate and value the heart of the person who gave the gift to us. Sadly, the world isn't like that yet.
Gifts come in many forms, some very obvious, and some as intangible as a smile or a kind word.
A cup of coffee could contain within it the sincere heart of a person who is going out of her way to care for us. Ultimately, gifts should be given and received as distilled expressions of heart and love. Their value has the same value as the heart behind them. For this reason, the gift should be valued forever, even if it's an ugly tie, or a sweater that is the wrong color. We may not be able to steel ourselves to wear it every day, but at the very least we should honor the heart of the person who gave it to us by keeping it as the expression of love that it was.