Catholic Singles

THE BIGGEST GIFT
BY: MARK ANTHONY ROSOLOWSKI

What is the biggest gift that you ever received from another person? I use to think in material things as being the best gifts on could get and the more expensive the better the gift. However, looking back now, the biggest gift that I have ever received was the time people spent with me. You can give someone the most expensive gift you can find, but this gift will always appear small in size when compared to spending time with another. Time, is a priceless gift, it is easy to give, it doesn’t cost a penny, yet to the one that you give it to it is worth millions. I was once told a child will spell love, T-I-M-E.

I remember neighbors of mine as I was growing up. They had been friends with my parents for years. They knew my father had died when I was six years old and that my brother had recently died. Knowing that I was a young teenager, and needing to get out with a male role model, he asked my mother if I could spend some time on Saturdays with him. My mother asked me if I wanted to, of course to get out of a house full of women for a day I said, “Yes.” My mother told him that I had said yes and it was arranged that the following Saturday I would go over and spend time with him.

The first Saturday we went for a drive, him his wife and me, it wasn’t a drive anywhere, just so that we could get to know each other. We went for lunch at Mc/Donald's and we just talked. It was an enjoyable day and I just enjoyed being out of the house full of females with a man that I could talk to. After we got back from the drive, I spent some time with him doing yard work and more talking. Eventually these Saturday visits increased in time to include going to breakfast, then lunch, I would then go to the golf course with him and we would just talk. Later it was also including Sundays, he was a part of my life, and he was a family member. When I proposed he was the first one I told after my mother, he was the first one on my list for guests. He was included in every milestone that I had in my life. It was because when I was with him I spelt love, T-I-M-E.

I have learned through my life that the time that you give people is more then time, it is giving them love. When you spend time with a group of people laughing, joking and having fun you are saying I love you. When you spend time quietly sitting at the bedside of your sick wife in case she needs anything, you are telling her I love you. As you sit by her bed spending time with her as she slowly loses the battle for life and fades away, you are saying I love you. When you spend time sitting in your living room holding your grandchild and reading her favorite book to her for the 20th time that day, you are saying I love you. Time is the greatest gift that you can give another, so next time you are looking for the perfect gift, just sit with the person, laugh, hold hands and talk, spend time with that person and say, I love you.

Please remember that you never know what tomorrow will bring, the one you love may not be here, so spend that time with them, give them all the time that you can, before it is too late, say I love you, give them the biggest gift that you can.