Free The Ultimate Gift (The Ultimate Series #1) by Jim Stovall Page B

way, I would like to be able to help deprived young people live a good life. I don’t really mean poor young people. I mean young people who have not learned the power and the passion and the values they can have that will make their lives worth living. Somehow I am going to do for other young people what my Uncle Red is doing for me.”
    Miss Hastings clapped her hands and replied enthusiastically, “Jason, that’s exciting. I can’t think of anything better you or anyone else could do with their life.”
    Jason looked toward me and asked, “Well, does that sound okay to you?”
    I smiled and replied, “Jason, after forty years of working with Miss Hastings, I have learned one principle of survival. That is simply to always agree with her. And I do, indeed, agree with her. You have established a most worthwhile dream and goal for your life. Just be sure to remember both of your great-uncle’s friends whose stories he shared with you, and keep your dream alive as long as you stay alive.”
    Miss Hastings walked Jason to the elevator, leaving me alone at my desk. I thought about my dreams and how they were still alive in my eightieth year, although I did vow at that moment to make sure all of my dreams stayed alive and continued to grow.

ELEVEN
     
    THE GIFT OF GIVING
     
    The only way you can truly get
more out of life for yourself
is to give part of yourself away.
    I was amazed at the progress young Jason Stevens was making as we traveled through our yearlong lesson in life together. He still had a long way to go, but there was definitely a light appearing at the end of the proverbial tunnel.
    As we sat at the conference table to begin our ninth month of this journey together, I noticed an amazing change in Jason’s countenance, attitude, and demeanor. I felt that he was actually looking forward to whatever Red Stevens had in store for him this month. I knew that I was.
    Miss Hastings pressed the appropriate button on the remote control, and Red Stevens appeared once again on the video screen.
    “Jason, I want to congratulate you on passing your test as a dreamer. Don’t ever think that you have this skill mastered. Your ability to dream and turn those dreams into reality will grow as long as you grow as a person.
    “This month, I want you to learn about the gift of giving. This is another one of those paradoxical principles like we talked about several months ago. Conventional wisdom would say that the less you give, the more you have. The converse is true. The more you give, the more you have. Abundance creates the ability to give; giving creates more abundance. I don’t mean this simply in financial terms. This principle is true in every area of your life.
    “It is important to be a giver and a receiver. Jason, financially, I have given you everything that you have in this world. But, I violated the principle involved in the gift of giving. I gave you money and things out of a sense of obligation, not a true spirit of giving. You received those things with an attitude of entitlement and privilege instead of gratitude. Our attitudes have robbed us both of the joy involved in the gift of giving.
    “It is important when you give something to someone that it be given with the right spirit, not out of a sense of obligation. I learned to give to people my whole life. I cannot imagine being deprived of the privilege of giving things and part of myself to other people.
    “One of the key principles in giving, however, is that the gift must be yours to give—either something you earned or created or maybe, simply, part of yourself.
    “This month, I want you to experience the gift of giving, but if you simply give away the money that I gave you or the things it will buy, we will have once again violated the principle. Therefore, every day for the next thirty days, I want you to give something to someone else that is a gift from you.”
    “I don’t have anything,” Jason mumbled.
    Red’s voice interrupted him.