I recently sent out an email to several family members, nephews, sisters, brother, cousins, my own son, all people who I love who are important to me. Personally, I do not like the whole electronic way of communication. It’s very impersonal and for some reason it seems like in today’s era of texting, instant messaging and emails, even a phone call to speak with someone in person has lost it’s value.
So this email was one where I shared from my heart a wish this Christmas that everyone would read the 2 things I had attached in my email. One attachment was a story written by my own Aunt Elna where she had memorialized what Christmas was like with her parents, sisters and brothers (one of whom was my father) in Denmark in 1929. I shared it with my family hoping that they would appreciate the history of this particular Christmas story and also value the roots of their own past.
The second story I shared was a short Christmas tale about Santa coming on Christmas Eve and telling a Mom about how sad he was that people today have forgotten why they put up a Christmas tree. It went on to tell about the reasons for the lights, the decorations, the gifts and the angel on top. To me it is a cute story reminding us that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ and it’s His birthday party.
Well, to my extreme disappointment, out of the 18 family members I sent my email to – not one has ‘hit reply’ to say they got the email. OK, so I only sent it 5 days ago…do I need to let a few weeks go by? Are my expectations too high that my own family would be polite enough to say “THANKS Auntie”? Has this age of technology transformed into a era where one-sided communication is acceptable? Or am I just simply expecting too much when I think a polite reply is the normal response from someone you think value’s your opinion?
Ultimately this is the problem with our modern technology. Emotion, personality, kindness, your simple actions showing Faith, Hope & Love cannot travel though the internet to be fully felt and expressed in real time or in Face Time!
My prayer today is that when you are receiving or sharing with your family some special moments for whatever occasion, or in whatever method, that you take the time to reflect, respond and if appropriate, hit “reply”!
lisa nester 