"All over the world this month, at some time in some way, every Beta Sigma Phi program will touch upon Christmas. There will be programs on gift-wrapping and home decorations, and programs on holiday entertaining; there will be programs on the Holy Land, and programs on the birth of Christ. There will be exchanges of gifts and discussions of gifts, and, I hope, discussions of THE GIFT.

"Gift" is an easy word to say, and it has a wonderful, warm connotation. Yet, as you strip it of all the tinsel and glitter, and the wrappings and the ribbons, it takes on greater and greater meaning.

In all the world, the two most important gifts are gifts from life and gifts to life. Each of us enjoys each day many gifts from life. Such gifts are love and understanding, insight and appreciation. We also may give gifts to life each day, and those gifts are love, understanding, insight, and appreciation. They are the same, but between them there is one tremendous difference.

The gifts from life flow to us each day, awaiting only our willingness to receive them. The gifts to life we must learn to give in our own ways according to our capacities, and with the understanding that it is a gift to life-whether those through whom we have given it are grateful or not, and even if they are unaware.

All of this may seem to be related to Beta Sigma Phi's programs only by the thinnest thread, but consider a moment. The greatest gift you can give to life is yourself-your best self, warm with understanding, cultivated by knowledge, polished by experience, and wrapped in the golden garment of friendship. This is the gift that we all want to make to life.

How often have you heard, "She has a gift for being kind," or "She has a gift for making friends," or "She has a gift for this talent or that one"? The talent is, of course, a gift, but if it is that noticeable in the world, there is little doubt that the original gift has been accepted with gratitude, and polished and practiced and perfected with care and perseverance. These talents are gifts from life, and it is these talents perfected that should be our gifts to life, and this is how they are related to Beta Sigma Phi programs.

Beta Sigma Phi programs constitute one of the greatest opportunities to polish and perfect ourselves. Each month in some way they can polish a new facet of our existence so that our lives shine more brilliantly, and proclaim the bit of divinity that is in each of us.

The first Christmas gifts were gold and frankincense and myrrh. How insignificant they are beside your gift-the gift of yourself, your very best self.

Merry Christmas!"