The tough economic times in the United States this Christmas season have many people re-evaluating their gift-giving strategies. While many tell researchers they are going to spend less this year, what has occurred amazingly is that the true meaning of Christmas is re-exerting itself.

What many realize is that spending lavish amounts on gifts and entertainment bears little resemblance to the true message brought by Jesus Christ. Certainly gift-giving will always be a part of Christmas, but this year — especially and maybe not since the years of the world wars — the giving of gifts will be more on the personal variety: acts of kindness, or true Christian service to others, or, and perhaps the most meaningful of all, finding ways to honor the Savior, whose birth we celebrate at this season, by following His example.

President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, said in a conference address, "The beloved apostles noted well His example. He lived not so to be ministered unto, but to minister; not to receive, but to give; not to save His life, but to pour it out for others." (Conference Report Oct. 1971, p. 17.) This example is the true meaning of the Christmas spirit as it was throughout the Savior's life and ministry — to do good unto others and to lose oneself in helping those around us.

During a visit to the Holy Land in 1997, President Gordon B. Hinckley said the Savior's ministry was "a twofold message of love and peace during an atmosphere of hatred and conflict." Can there be a more pertinent message for our day? President Hinckley continued, "Of course there were other great teachers. There were others that taught the Golden Rule. There were others who taught the concepts of love and peace. But here is One who taught with great power and then sealed that teaching with His very life in an offering beyond comprehension." (Go Forward with Faith, p. 557.)

In "Count that Day Lost," the poet George Eliot captured the essence of giving:

If you sit down at set of sun

And count the acts that you have done,

And, counting, find

One self-denying deed, one word

That eased the heart of him who heard,

One glance most kind

That fell like sunshine where it went —

Then you may count that day well spent.

But if, through all the livelong day,

You've cheered no heart, by yea or nay —

If, through it all

You've nothing done that you can trace

That brought the sunshine to one face —

No act most small

That helped some soul and nothing cost —

Then count that day as worse than lost.

(As appears in William J. Bennett's The Book of Virtues, p. 171.)

President Hinckley said, "It seems to me that He [the Savior] is saying to each of us that unless we lose ourselves in the service of others our lives are largely lived to no real purpose. . . . He who lives only unto himself withers and dies, while he who forgets himself in the service of others grows and blossoms in this life and in eternity." (BYU Speeches of the Year, 1977, p. 43.)

President Hinckley counsels us today: "Ours is the duty to walk by faith. Ours is the duty to walk in faith, rising above the evils of the world. . . . Ours is a divine birthright. Ours is a divine destiny. We must not, we cannot sink to the evils of the world.

"You and I must walk on a higher plane. It may not be easy, but we can do it. Our great example is the Son of God whom we wish to follow." (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, p. 7.)

At this holiday season, we need to continue giving the gift of self one to another.