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A Christmas Story

Dianne Linderman

Updated: Jun 30, 2020

Kids and Christmas

When my four brothers and I were very young, we learned something about the true meaning of Christmas. On a December day, my dad loaded our whole family into our VW bus and we headed to Lake Arrowhead to spend a few days. We had the pleasure of staying at a friend’s log cabin in the mountains. It was so much fun with a huge fire roaring, snow falling outside, and my brothers and I running up and down the stairs, sledding in the yard, and throwing snowballs.


The best part was my dad explaining how giving us each a gift would hurt us and not make us happy. The mere act of giving us something we did not earn or deserve would spoil our souls. The next day he told us he would now give us the greatest gift, the opportunity to learn to be free! We then ventured out into the forest, and with a permit, cut down twenty or so pine trees.


When we arrived home from our trip to the mountains, we set up a Christmas tree lot on our front yard and all of us spent a week or two selling the beautiful, fresh trees. We sold every single one and my dad let us split the profit. He then taught us to save and invest it. To this day, I still have the original one hundred dollars that we earned, and I also still have the simple gift my dad gave us—the gift of freedom.


The comfort zone is a non-growing place. Having things given to you on a silver platter or expecting gifts is the spoiling point. It sets you up as a child for failure and doom. The moment I learned that I could make money on my own, I felt as free as an eagle to soar through life with new ideas to learn my lessons and to love God for giving me all of these wonderful things.


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