For a seemingly simple story filled with imaginative words and creative rhymes, How the Grinch Stole Christmas has always held a lot of meaning and provided some wonderful perspective, not only about Christmas but about how we approach our lives. The line that has always stayed with me is the one the Grinch speaks as he stands atop Mount Crumpitt with all of the Who’s Christmas trappings—their gifts, their noisemakers, their Christmas trees, and the food for their Christmas feast:
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! “Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas … perhaps … means a little bit more!”
What a wonderful revelation and something we can apply in so many different ways to as many different circumstances in our lives.
This is something I have watched my girls come to understand in their young lives and even put into practice in some pretty wonderful ways under the guidance of their incredibly generous hearts. Often I am both inspired and encouraged by our teenagers and the ways they are willing to share with others. Truly, they embrace and embody the Grinch’s declaration that maybe, in this instance, life . . . perhaps . . . means a little bit more! A little bit more than me. A little bit more than what I want. A little bit more than my stuff—whether that’s money, belongings, or time. I am convinced again and again as I watch my teenagers growing into who they are designed and created to be that we can learn so much from our teens, especially when it comes to engaging with the world around us.
The other day, as my 17 year old and I were driving home from her weekly teen hangout, she asked me seemingly out of the blue whether we still had a book about Blackpink we’d bought several years ago and were trying to sell. Blankpink is an all-girl K-Pop band from Korea often referred to as the Queens of K-Pop. For a brief period, our girls liked a few of their songs, and my oldest seemed into them enough for me to pick up this unauthorized fan guide for her. While she enjoyed flipping through it once or twice, her interest in K-Pop waned quickly, taken over pretty readily and easily by 80s classic rock and, more specifically now, 80s hair metal.
When I asked her why she wanted to know if we still had the book, she explained that one of the other girls who attends the hangout mentioned that she had recently started getting into Blackpink and my sweet and kind-hearted teen wanted to gift this book to her. I love that she wants to do that and it is this sort of thing that shines a light on the generous spirit of her and her sister. It is also what I mean when I say I can learn so much from my teens. I love that their minds go to a place that wonders what they can do for someone else, looking more and more often outward rather than inward, as we are all wont to do, me included.
I have witnessed such generosity in each of our teens. Like the way our 15 year old has carried food and money along on car rides to offer to those who stand along our Asheville streets in need of support, and, even more, of being seen. Our youngest teen definitely sees them and has a heart to help in whatever way she can when she can. It is that same spirit of generosity that inspires her to volunteer with the Mills River Life Enrichment Center (MRLEC) program each Thursday, helping to serve the weekly lunch and distributing welcoming gifts or BINGO prizes to the MRLEC guests.
Our girls bring this same big-hearted expression here at home, asking me multiple times each day how they can help me or if there is anything they can do to lighten my load during the day. Admittedly, I am not always the best at saying yes, but I am doing a bit better at pointing them in a helpful direction when there’s one for them to take or a task for them to do. In each of their expressions, both large and small, I cannot help but hear the words of the Grinch as he comes to understand that the Who’s Christmas celebration isn’t about all the things and trappings. Likewise, life is not about what we have or what next things we can acquire. In fact, it truly is about a little bit more. It’s about that little bit more, that extra step we take toward someone else or the hand we are willing to extend to another, whether with our gifts, our talents, or our time. And I love that my girls not only know this, but they do this often.