The Ultimate Gift Completion

"In the end, life lived to its fullest is its own Ultimate Gift." That was our last quote of the book. I know many of you have enjoyed having those little quotes. Such little pearls of wisdom. In the end Jason finds out there was still one gift left in The Ultimate Gift, "..control of my charitable trust fund. Its current value is somewhere slightly over $1 billion." It is a gift to know that Jason wasn't even expecting anything by this point at the end. He truly believed that his Ultimate Gift were all the gifts he had already been given and he was content with that. I think we were all happy to see how this ended up.

We had a good meeting this past Saturday with 8 women in attendance but I know quite a few more than that who read the book and enjoyed it. Everyone seemed to be in agreement on what a "gift" the book was. (pun intended) We all agreed that it could get tiring with the same scenario at the beginning and end of each chapter but that the overall message outweighs the faults. Several women plan on giving the book away as a gift to someone they know. I brought a discussion guide that I found off of the main website for the movie and book. We didn't look at it too much but it was something to take home and review if you were interested with Bible verses that corresponded to different gifts. You can go to The Ultimate Gift Experience by clicking here and see where the different discussion guides can be found as well as several other resources for the movie and book. And let me back up a minute, yes there is a movie as well. I really like the movie even with the differences from the book I still enjoy it. You will have to watch it to see what I mean, regardless the gifts are taught the same, if not in a more emotional way being able to see the actors/actresses achieve them.

And if that still isn't enough for you of The Ultimate Gift, there is a sequel by Jim Stovall called, The Ultimate Life. Here is the description of this book from Amazon:

A profound follow-up to the bestselling book and major motion picture, The Ultimate Gift. When Jason Stevens found out he had to jump through hoops to maybe get an unnamed inheritance from his billionaire grandfather, he was not amused. By the time he'd finished learning the lessons he'd become a different man. Ready to tackle the duties of running a multi-billion dollar trust, he is once again derailed, this time by his pugnacious family. Not content with their cattle ranches and oil fields, his aunts, uncles, and even his parents are determined to see every last dime entrusted to their own self-serving pockets. With none of the reluctance he initially showed for the Gift, he eagerly accepts the challenge and pushes himself to prove not only to his family and the court but also to the world, that with determination and the simple tenets of the Gift, anyone can lead The Ultimate Life. (end quote)

The sequel is just as small and easy to get through as the first book and enjoyable as well. I wouldn't go as far to say it is a must read but nevertheless it's a good way for you to see where Jason went in life after he had completed his gift. I didn't even know a sequel existed until I happened upon it one day in our $5 Christian Book store in our outlet mall, so maybe you too one day stumble upon that deal.


I hope you have enjoyed our January Selection as we start our second year and that you join us for February. I pray that you take to your heart The Ultimate Gifts that Jason learned without forgetting THE ultimate gift God gave us all, His Son. I pray you live the gifts learned everyday and pass The Ultimate Gift on to others because, "what is knowledge if it isn't shared?" Happy Reading!

The gifts of Gratitude, a Day, and Love

As we finish up the last gifts we finish up Chapters 12-14 with the gifts of Gratitude, a Day and Love. This will be my last post before our meeting this upcoming Saturday, January 30th, 8:30 AM-10:00AM. I will do my regular follow up completion of the book post next week after we have had our meeting. Let's get to it!



"In those times we yearn to have more in our lives, we should dwell on the things we already have. In doing so, we will often find that our lives are already full to overflowing." Chapter 12, The gift of Gratitude. As with each chapter and gift Red starts off explaining why he chose this particular gift to teach Jason. Red states during this video a statement that couldn't be more true, "I have always found it ironic that the people in the world that have the most to be thankful for are often the least thankful, and somehow the people who have virtually nothing, many times live lives full of gratitude." Red continues to explain how he learned about something that helped keep his gratitude in check, The Golden List. The Golden List is something that Red would do every morning, before he got out of bed, he would think of 10 things he was thankful for that morning. Jason's challenge is to think of a list to provide to Mr. Hamilton and continue the tradition of thinking of your own list each morning. As you have probably guessed Jason makes it through this task demonstrating 10 great things to be thankful. I challenge you to do this if you don't already have some version of The Golden List you do your self in the morning. When you get up think up your own list and thank God for that list and the fact that you just got up another morning!



"Life at its essence boils down to one day at a time. Today is the day!" The gift of a Day is our Chapter 13. Our chapter opens up on Mr. Hamilton reflecting on his friendship with Red. Red comes on the video screen and shares with Jason the task of planning how he would want to spend the last day of his life. Red tells Jason he wants him to discover what he already has, "Why should we wait until the last day of our lives to begin living the maximum day?" Jason returns after a month with his description of his last day. You could say that he def got the point that Red was trying to get across to him and he realized that instead of doing anything really spectacular it's the simple things that are so important. It's the time spent with family and friends that in the big perspective you can't afford to waste or let things go unsaid. Red talks about how the younger we are and we realize the gift of a day the better we are for it. I pray that each of us keeps this in mind day today and that you don't put off things that are important to you or could be important to others.


"Love is a treasure for which we can never pay. The only way we keep it is to give it away." Our last gift, Chapter 14, The gift of Love. Red starts out on the tape reminding Jason with a few more comments concerning the gift of a day, "..probably nothing that you would plan for your last day of life that you couldn't do today or tomorrow. Somehow, I think life's tragedies are made up not as much of the great failures as the simple pleasures and kind gestures missed." Red tells Jason this about his gift of love, "Anything good, honorable, and desirable in life is based in love." Jason's task for this last month is to review all his past gifts and explore how love is a part of each one. Jason returns and is able to correctly reflect on how love was involved in each gift Red gave to him. I won't repeat each one but what he has to say about the final gift, love. "If I were going to really try to define The Gift of Love in tangible terms, I would have to cite as an example what my Uncle Red did for me and gave me during this last year. When we truly love someone else, our love makes us a different person, and it makes them a different person." "My Uncle Red's love for me in giving me The Ultimate Gift, forever changed my life and who I am." It is so encouraging to see this change in Jason considering how he behaved at the beginning of the book. Jason is happy, encouraged and ready to continue living his new found love for life. But.. not to soon... He soon finds out that there is just one more part to The Ultimate Gift. After our meeting tomorrow I will come back next week, go over our last chapter and share some details of the meeting. Hope to see you there! Happy Reading!

The gifts of Laughter, Dreams and Giving

Today we are going to go through 3 gifts in one post again. Chapters 9-11 are the gifts of Laughter, Dreams and Giving. I hope you haven't gotten too tired of the repeating aspects of the book. Bare with me! Here we go!

"Laughter is good medicine for the soul. Our world is desperately in need of more medicine" Chapter 9 part of the Ultimate Gift is the gift of laughter. Red asks Jason to find someone as an example with the ability to laugh at themselves and their situation and that can be happy through life regardless. Jason brings in Mr. David Reese, a blind man who finds humor in everything. Mr. Reese and Jason met on a train one day and David taught Jason what it means to laugh whatever the problem in your life, even a life long blindness. Mr. Reese tells Mr. Hamilton before he leaves something that would do us all good to remember, "Sometimes in life, you either laugh or cry. And I prefer to laugh." Jason passes this month and moves on to the next.

"Faith is all that dreamers need to see into the future." Chapter 10, The gift of dreams. Red tells Jason he wants to teach him about the gift of dreams because he feels it is probably one of the most important gifts. He tells him,"The gift of dreams allows us to go out and get any other gift we want out of this life." He wants Jason to make a list this month of dreams and prioritize that list and see what he is passionate about, he wants Jason to become a dreamer. At the end of the month Jason came to visit the attorney's office and he shared his big dream. "Somehow, some 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 that they can have which will make their lives worth living. Somehow I am going to do for other young people what my Uncle Red is doing for me." After reading that.. I think we all know he passed this month!

"The only way you can truly get more out of life for yourself is to give part of yourself away." Chapter eleven and last chapter we will go over today is The gift of giving. Red starts by telling Jason the following," 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 principal is true in every area of your life." Jason gives something of himself for 30 days straight, something Red could not have already provided him with. I won't go through and list each one but each day involved the gift of himself doing something for someone else. Jason succeeded and learned what all can truly be given to another person, large and small. The chapter ends with Mr. Hamilton's thoughts, "I was reminded of how a small gift when it is given can be a magnificent gift as it is received."


We are almost done and to our next meeting, only a few more gifts left! I hope you are blessed by them! Happy Reading!

The gifts of Learning, Problems and Family

Today we are going to go over three chapters together. Because these are so small I decided not to break them up like I have been doing. So let's start with our next gift in Chapter 6, The gift of Learning.



"Education is a lifelong journey whose destination expands as you travel." The gift of Learning is to be learned by Jason on Red's orders at a library in South America. The library is named after Red and houses books that are rarely seen sitting on the shelves. The people in this remote village in South America have such a desire for knowledge that they are constantly reading. Jason who has always had access to such knowledge never realized the impact it can have on someone who is limited in their access to learning and books. Jason gets through his lesson and learns that the desire and hunger for education is the key to real learning. I think Jason's problem just may well be a common one. Those who are born into free education and limitless access to knowledge take it for granted. Where those who a book is like hope are more grateful and anxious to learn more. Hopefully Red has made his point and Jason will be better mindful of the knowledge he takes for granted.



"Problems may only be avoided by exercising good judgment. Good Judgment may only be gained by experiencing life's problems." In chapter seven, Jason is learning about the Gift of Problems. Red tells Jason in the video that he must find 4 people from the 4 stages of life who have problems and learn from them. He tells Jason that he feels like he always handled all Jason's problems so he didn't have to and that he feels bad about it because Jason needs those life skills. He tells him, "When we can learn from our own problems, we begin to deal with life. When we can learn from other people's problems, we begin to master life." Jason sets off to learn a lesson from each situation he meets. He comes back a month later and tells Mr. Hamilton and Miss Hastings his stories. First he met a child, Emily, who is dieing from terminal cancer. Emily was full of life even with her situation and enjoying a simple beautiful day at the park as if nothing could stop her, not even the cancer. Second person Jason met was a middle aged man named Bill Johnson whom was trying to make ends meet for his family. And even though his family were barely scraping by he was happy and had a wonderful outlook on his life. He knew that even though things were not going his way he was still blessed with the time and love now spent with his family. Third Jason found an old man attending his wife's funeral. But rather than being grief stricken he was joyous and celebrating the life she had lived and even there thanking her for all she ever did for him. Lastly Jason uses himself as the example for the young person. He makes the case that no one he met during the month learned as much as he did during this time. He says what lays at the heart of it all, " I finally know that joy does not come from avoiding a problem or having someone else deal with it. Joy comes from overcoming a problem or simply learning to live with it while being joyful." Jason ends this gift successfully and rushes off to go visit a special friend at the park. Have you learned the lesson that problems are going to come but it's up to you to get through them and see the joy you can have on the other side? Don't forget that there is always someone there with you that's not mentioned in the book, The Holy Spirit.



"Some people are born into wonderful families. Others have to find or create them. Being a member of a family is a priceless membership that we pay nothing for but love." Chapter eight and the last chapter we will go through today is the gift of Family. This month Red sends Jason to what would seem an unlikely place to learn about families, an orphanage. Red tells Jason that he thinks Jason may be able to understand after this trip how important families are and the bond that can be formed from love between them rather blood related or not. Jason spends his month as a house parent with lots of boys and does come out better for it. As they leave the orphanage Jason seems to finally understand and he says, "I think family is not as much about being related by blood as it is about relating through love."


Thankfully Jason is moving along and we will get to more gifts on another day. Happy Reading!

The Gift of Friends

In Chapter 5, The Gift of Friends, the beginning quote is as follows, "It is a wealthy person, indeed, who calculates riches not in gold but in friends." We start the chapter with the old Jason... past couple chapters we had seen the glimmer of a change in heart but at the beginning of this one he's back. He receives Red's mission that he must find an example of true friendship that demonstrates his principles. Red tells him that the people he calls friends are "weak hangers-on." And Red tells a story of true friendship between him and Mr. Hamilton as a wonderful example.


Jason arrives back at the office a month later and tells Mr. Hamilton and Mrs. Hastings a story of what he believes true friendship is between Gus Caldwell and Red Stevens. Jason says this about friendship, "The best I can do is to say that friendship involves loyalty, commitment, and a process that includes sharing another person's life. It even goes deeper than that, but it's hard to put into words." Because of his manor and his story he passes on to the next month with the Mr. Hamilton's approval. It's encouraging to hear Jason is beginning a friendship with one of the people he helped during the money chapter. Another lesson that I believe youth of today need to learn. With bullying at such a high, kids need to know that real friends wouldn't treat you certain ways or use your friendship as a tool against you. Real Friendship is not something that can be paid for.. hence bringing back the saying, Money can't buy you everything! I pray each of you reading this knows the benefits of a true friendship. Have a great weekend!

The Gift of Money

"Money is nothing more than a tool. It can be a force for good, a force for evil, or simply be idle." Thus says the quote at the beginning of our next chapter. Red gives Jason the task to learning about the value of money by giving him $1,500.00 to help 5 strangers. He tells Jason that "All the money in the world won't buy you one more day of life. .... To you money has always seemed like the air that we breathe. There's always more." Because Jason has no idea how a little bit of money can help or change some one's life he must go and give the money away. Once he gives people the money they can focus on real and important issues in their world.


Jason returns at the end of the month and gives the stories of the 5 people he helped with the $1,500.00 and how he even put in $300.00 of his own money to good use. We begin to see even more of a change of heart in Jason as he makes it successfully through another gift. Similar to what Red had Jason do I have heard before where people are given an amount of money at church or something else and told that they can not spend it on themselves but make some one's day. This one particular story told of how when church let out one day they were each given an envelope with $10. The pastor told them before they left to use it for another. One person said that when they were in the Starbucks drive through they gave the cashier the $10.00 and said to pay for as many drinks as it would cover behind her in the line. Just think of what that did for that person (s) that received that unexpected gift. Even a small gesture such as this can brighten some one's outlook on life.

Jason doesn't know the value of money and Red is right to give him the lesson. So often today kids do think that credit/debit cards and ATM's are a money tree and that their parents are made out of it. I think this would be a neat lesson to teach those still learning such as a youth group what the difference money can make when it's shared. Thank you for reading. Next time, Chapter 5, The gift of friends.

The Gift of Work

The first gift that Jason receives is, The Gift of work. "He who loves his work never labors" I like that quote and it's a good thought, something that I think about often lately as I try to discover what I want to go back to school for, what I want to start a career in. I know that I want to love it. Several ideas have come about but I know that my heart would not be in the right place so therefore it indeed would be a great labor. Like Red Stevens is teaching Jason, good comes from the work we do and I do enjoy it. Yes sometimes the work we do is not enjoyable but it brings me joy to get an honest days work in and provide for my family. Something we may have learned, but most of the Steven's family has no clue about. And something that many people in this upcoming generation are experiencing as well.

We see Jason go through this lesson and come out successful on the other side and we begin to see a glimmer of change. He does the difficult task of putting in fence posts and I think what Gus tells Jason at the end of the chapter is the heart of where this lesson lies, "If you can do this kind of work with pride and quality, you can do anything." Yes, these chapters and lessons are brief but monumental. I can already think of several people who have no idea what the gift of work is all about. May be something simple to you but something that we all need to remember to tell those who will come after us to pass on this life lesson and to pray for those who don't know it yet. Happy Reading!

The beginning of The Ultimate Gift

Well a new year and lots of new books to read! I hope you have enjoyed your break and have been reading lots of great books that you can give to me for recommendations! This January book selection is one that I was introduced to when I met my husband's family. His Aunt had given him and his brother copies of The Ultimate Gift for Christmas one year. So I saw the book lying around one day and decided to start reading it. I love what his Aunt wrote in the front of his and I want to share it with you as a good pre-cursor to the reading and an idea of why I felt like it was such a good selection:

“If you never pick up another book, please make an effort to read one small chapter from this one on a daily basis. The principles found in this book were ingrained in the children of our family since my earliest memory. Putting them together in a wonderful tale of fiction causes them to be further ingrained. You won’t realize it’s blessing until you delve into it’s written word.”

My husband’s Aunt is known in the family for being good with words and I felt she hit the nail on the head with this one. And when I read the description she writes, the Bible also comes to mind. We are reading about a book that is not talking about The Ultimate Gift to mankind of Jesus, but a gift of values to be passed down between families just as his Aunt spoke of in her note. I feel like this book has a simple easy way of preserving those values to be passed on to a generation that just isn’t getting them. Especially when we are in a culture of such self-involved ideas, I feel that you reading this book may spark you to give it to those younger who may need to hear this story.

Enough of my introduction let’s talk about the beginning of the book for a moment. I like the fact that it gives you just enough background and gets to the point. And I enjoy the quotes that are at the beginning of each chapter. In chapter one we find out who all the players are and a good grasp of what Red Stevens family is like. In chapter two we get the beginnings of what the whole book is about and meet our main character, Jason Stevens. The quote at the beginning of chapter two says, “In the end, a person is only known by the impact they have on others.” This book is about Red Stevens deciding that the impact he had on his family wasn’t a good one, even though they may say different considering their riches. He has decided to leave a better impact on Jason hopefully changing his life forever. We will continue to read and see what the tasks are that Jason must complete to receive his Ultimate Gift. Happy Reading!

January 2010 Selection

It's time to get the book club rolling for 2010 and I sure do hope you all are as excited as I am about starting our 2nd year. The only change is that we will now be meeting in our new facilities at church! Beacon of Life has been good to us but for our 2010 year we will meet in one of the classrooms in Swift's new building. This will make our first meeting for 2010 on January 30th at 8:30 AM.



Our January selection for the book club will be, The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall. This is a small book (125 pages) but has such an enormous impact. You may recognize the name of the book which is also a movie and is just as good too. As we come off the busy Christmas season giving and receiving our material gifts lets take a minute to read about the gifts found in this book. Being what the title of the book is, at first it might lead you to believe we are reading about God's Ultimate Gift to us, Jesus. But the gift the author describes is a gift from one person to another that helped change a life. Here is what the book flap has to say:




Red Stevens was a self-made man who gave his family everything – and ruined them in the process. Now, as his estate of mega companies is divided among greedy and self-serving relatives, one member is singled out for a chance to do something special: Red’s great-nephew, Jason. The Ultimate Gift takes the reader through Jason’s incredible work to gain his Uncle Red’s inheritance through a series of challenges. Every step of the way, there is a lesson for Jason and the reader. It’s a quest for what it means to live life well that has captivated millions of readers throughout the world, and has also become the basis of numerous educational and philanthropic initiatives that build upon the inspiring insights that unfold in this stirring story. (End quote)




This book is an inspiring fictional novel. Please keep this in mind when reading the selection and that in no way are we trying to take away from the gift of Jesus. Because this book is so short I thought I would let you know that there is a sequel that goes along with it that you are welcome to read but it is not required for discussion. The sequel is, The Ultimate Life by Jim Stovall and is equally as short as the first book.




If you are interested in a Pre-order please contact Kathy at the church office. As always local libraries and bookstores have some copies available. I have sometimes seen this one and it’s sequel at the $5 Christian bookstore at the Tanger outlet mall. We welcome you to invite your family and friends to join us in reading. If you have any questions, please let me know. Happy Reading!!