The First Fruits offering by the Hebrew people symbolized their show of gratitude to YHVH. It is a good thing to pay gratitude to those people who have helped us along in life. You can get an idea of the type of person you’re dealing with by their sense of gratitude they express towards people. After YHVH, our parents should be next in line to honor. Many parents have given up so much for their children. Most of the time, all the parent really wants in return, is just to know what they did made a difference in their kid’s lives. I recently read about a woman who wanted to do something special for her mother. She tried to think of something to convey her gratitude and love for her. So in recognition and honor of her mother’s efforts in her life from childhood up, she decided to make a “memory jar.” She purchased a large jar with a lid and placed over one hundred little pieces of paper in it. Each piece of paper contained a memory that she wanted to share again with her mother. They were simple but meaningful memories.

She wrote how she remembered their talk on the night she became engaged. She remembered how she had saved for a special dress she wanted as a child and her mother had paid half of it for her. She remembered how frightened she was when they had to take her mother to the hospital. She recalled the excitement as she had called and informed her mother she was now a grandmother. Simple memories, yet each one told of the love and appreciation she had recalled when thinking about her mother. I know personally as a mother, that the daughter’s “memory jar” was worth far more than any gift purchased from a store. Now there are different variations that could be done on this. Maybe you were raised with only a father or by a grandmother. Sometimes it’s hard for some people to show emotions, or to say thank you. What better unspoken way to say it than this? Maybe you have a child that you’d like to convey your love to in a very special way. We’ve always heard of “Kodak Moments”, why not put some of those moments down on paper and create a “memory jar” of your own.