{"id":356,"date":"2010-12-19T08:44:10","date_gmt":"2010-12-19T14:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/WordPress\/?p=356"},"modified":"2010-12-19T09:48:26","modified_gmt":"2010-12-19T15:48:26","slug":"its-all-about-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/?p=356","title":{"rendered":"It’s all about PERSPECTIVE …."},"content":{"rendered":"

The holidays seem to bring out the best and the worst in people.\u00a0 Personally, I have experienced the absolute joy of how it feels to give a gift to someone that had very deep meaning.\u00a0 Earlier this year I made a wedding gift for a soldier who I supported a few years back, and his lovely bride.\u00a0 Hopefully I will never forget the amazing way that gift made them feel in receiving it, or in me giving it.\u00a0\u00a0 Every stitch of that blanket was made with prayers for their marriage to sustain the tests of time and for the safety of our brave heroes who continue to serve our Nation all over the world.\u00a0 Few gifts can probably ever mean as much to me as that one.\u00a0 One would probably ask, who it meant more to … the giver, or the receivers?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Honoring a hero and his wife ....<\/p><\/div>\n

That question should be asked of all gifts given this holiday season.\u00a0 There have been times when I was less mature and more selfish, and I didn’t really appreciate what someone had given me.\u00a0 When I began adopting service members years ago, I stopped exchanging traditional gifts with most people, and began making my closest friends and family a calendar from my travels.\u00a0 To me, it is the best gift I can give, because they can see where I have been and it always evokes stories they would otherwise probably not know to ask.\u00a0 The gift means something to them (well, I hope it does anyway .. haha).\u00a0 If nothing else, they have great pictures to look at all year long and a calendar to boot.\u00a0 (hehe)\u00a0 …. and on those rare occasions when I do give someone a gift, it truly is one I believe they will value and appreciate.\u00a0 Something so simple as a “Proud Coin” can make all the difference in the world, from what I am told.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

There are other times, where we have to look deeper inside to see the reason why someone gives the gift they do.\u00a0 Maybe they have little money, so they make something they think you will like.\u00a0 Maybe it looks dorky and you don’t see any purpose in it, but ask yourself if it could have a bigger meaning to the person who gave it to you.\u00a0 Could it be possible it was in hopes it would make you happy inside, even if that wasn’t your reaction?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes we spend money on gifts, when we are not looking at the whole picture.\u00a0 This reminds me of my second visit to South Africa.\u00a0 The year before I had been taken to Soweto and met a bunch of children who were seeking donations for uniforms so they could attend school. (at the time I thought it a bit odd that one of the poorest places on earth would require children to have enough money to purchase uniforms, let alone charge for them to go to school).\u00a0 For a few months I saved money and sent it to the school in a box full of clothes, toiletries, paper, and crayons so\u00a0hopefully one child would be able to have that uniform.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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The children each have on clothes brought by The Sky Angel from "Amerika" ...<\/p><\/div>\n

When I went back the following year, that little boy was so excited to thank me.\u00a0 He said “Miss Robin, it was so very nice of you to send money for this uniform so I could go to school.\u00a0 It means so much to me to be able to study so I can make a better life for my family.\u00a0 I hate to ask this, but is there any way you could buy me a pair of shoes, so I won’t have to walk on cut glass in order to get to school?”\u00a0 Those words have stuck with me for various reasons … one simply is because at the time, I never about the shoes before that moment in time.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

There will be gifts we receive in life that we simply do not want or need.\u00a0 Accept them with gratitude, because sometimes it’s not about us.\u00a0 Sometimes it is about the\u00a0person giving the gift.\u00a0 In reality, maybe my blanket doesn’t mean as much to Ed and Krista as it did to me to make it for them.\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe it means more to them.\u00a0 But gifts are given as a token of our love and admiration for the receiver.\u00a0 If you have lost perspective on the reason you are purchasing that gift, or why you are receiving the one you have gotten, maybe you should opt not to exchange gifts at all.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

And if you receive a gift you simply do not want or cannot use, do me a favor?\u00a0 Send it to me.\u00a0 I promise I will put it into the hands of someone who will appreciate it more than words can begin to express.\u00a0 Whether it be to a service member serving on battlegrounds on the other side of the world,\u00a0 an orphan at a school in Johannesburg, or a family who will not have Christmas this year because their parents lost their jobs this past year and don’t even know where their next meal is coming from.\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

May you experience the Reason for the Season through the gift of salvation this Christmas, for in that I found a reason for living my life with purpose.\u00a0 Through my faith, I found forgiveness, and that I was and am accepted exactly as I am.\u00a0 Having those gifts and being able to share them with you, is the best present I will ever be able to share … the gift of accepting people where they are, and being an example I hope you would want to follow.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

As I bring this blog post to an end, I truly wish you and yours the most precious of holiday seasons and hope you have the joy of knowing you are a gift to every person you meet.\u00a0 Set aside your differences and make things right with those you care about the most … life is short, do it while you can.\u00a0\u00a0 Look deeply inside yourself for PERSPECTIVE before you judge someone elses actions, and most of all .. I wish for you to experience the pure joy in giving AND receiving, gifts that deeply touch you … like an afghan that took months to make, or my lesson from a school kid thousands of miles away, about\u00a0shoes.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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The Sky Angel and Tigger, Christmas 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

As a final note, please take a moment to light a candle, and say a prayer, send up positive thoughts and good juju to our valiant heroes serving so far away from home this holiday season and throughout the year.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Ho Ho Ho,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Sky Angel<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Please send all unwanted gifts (especially shoes! hehehe) to:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Robin Schmidt<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

PO Box 122037<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Covington, KY 41012-2037<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The holidays seem to bring out the best and the worst in people.\u00a0 Personally, I have experienced the absolute joy of how it feels to give a gift to someone that had very deep meaning.\u00a0 Earlier this year I made a wedding gift for a soldier who I supported a few years back, and his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,14,18,13,12,19,22,17,6],"class_list":["post-356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-humanitarian","tag-mpumelelo","tag-robin-schmidt","tag-sinethemba","tag-south-africa","tag-the-sky-angel","tag-travel","tag-troops","tag-volunteering"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=356"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370,"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions\/370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}