Today, a customer came into the store where I work and set her phone down on the counter. I told her that her phone case was adorable, filled with photos of her family and her dogs. She responded by telling me that it was a great idea and any gift her children gave her would be the best gift because it’s coming from them. I thought to myself how incredibly true that was. Some of the best gifts I’ve ever received were not the most expensive ones. In fact, the best gifts I’ve gotten were thoughtful and from someone I love. The monetary value is irrelevant, but the gift keeps on giving.

The best gifts come from the heart. I think about the times when I was little and I would draw the most atrocious picture. At that age, I thought I was the next Picasso. In reality, you couldn’t differentiate between what each object was, but I would come home from school and give my mom the drawing proud as could be. Instead of telling me how I needed some more practice, she hugged me tightly and thanked me for the beautiful artwork. She didn’t save these things because she liked the way they looked; she saved them because they were from me.

As time goes on, the gifts you give and you get may change. This past year, I received a notebook from my best friend. It was a personalized notebook with pictures of our adventures on the cover. When we studied abroad together, we wrote a passage daily about our adventures that day or the emotional part about being so far from home. The new journal she gave me may be just a journal, but it symbolizes our past experiences and the ones yet to come.

This is one of those little things that we get throughout our lives that can you’re your heart. The gifts that we give and get from the most important people in our lives can be a good reminder of how much we care. It’s a saying we hear often, but it truly is the thought that counts.