Yesterday was one of my favorite days. So many people thinking about the good things in their lives, and in this country even the poorest of the poor have more day-to-day basic needs met than in much of the world. Families gather with varying degrees of love and acceptance and understanding, but gather none-the-less. We feel the fun anticipation of the Christmas season before the stress of the season begins in earnest.
Now "Black Friday" has morphed into various sales promotions that run from a day or two before Thanksgiving Thursday non-stop into the next week. Now I'm reading about "Giving Tuesday" as though we can make a thoughtful or not-so-thoughtful cash contribution and then be free to get on with the real deal of running amok in the quest for the "perfect gift", often with no thought to the financial consequences in January.
So I am going to suggest that this Holiday Season we all try something a little different. Let's GIVE each day leading up to Christmas. I'm told we learn a new habit by practicing it for 30 days so this might be the start of something big. Let's make a point to intentionally, thoughtfully and generously GIVE something each and every day from now through Christmas.
Am I suggesting that we indulge in an orgy of giving gifts to family and friends. No, I am not!
This is what I mean. Let's choose to be kind and thoughtful to those overworked store clerks, postal workers and mail carriers. Give them a kind word. Look them in the eye and acknowledge them as a beloved child of God, even if things don't go well--even if they are part of why it went wrong! Carry extra change so you can easily bump up the tip for your waitress or hairdresser. Leave a note of thanksgiving with the tip. Take a basket of fruit around to your neighbors, asking each if they would like an apple or pear or orange for a snack. Write a thank-you note to that person who did you a kindness weeks ago: no, it is not too late.
You get the idea! It could change Christmas from a stress roller coaster to a time of great joy as we practice the true meaning of Christmas.
Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7
Now "Black Friday" has morphed into various sales promotions that run from a day or two before Thanksgiving Thursday non-stop into the next week. Now I'm reading about "Giving Tuesday" as though we can make a thoughtful or not-so-thoughtful cash contribution and then be free to get on with the real deal of running amok in the quest for the "perfect gift", often with no thought to the financial consequences in January.
So I am going to suggest that this Holiday Season we all try something a little different. Let's GIVE each day leading up to Christmas. I'm told we learn a new habit by practicing it for 30 days so this might be the start of something big. Let's make a point to intentionally, thoughtfully and generously GIVE something each and every day from now through Christmas.
Am I suggesting that we indulge in an orgy of giving gifts to family and friends. No, I am not!
This is what I mean. Let's choose to be kind and thoughtful to those overworked store clerks, postal workers and mail carriers. Give them a kind word. Look them in the eye and acknowledge them as a beloved child of God, even if things don't go well--even if they are part of why it went wrong! Carry extra change so you can easily bump up the tip for your waitress or hairdresser. Leave a note of thanksgiving with the tip. Take a basket of fruit around to your neighbors, asking each if they would like an apple or pear or orange for a snack. Write a thank-you note to that person who did you a kindness weeks ago: no, it is not too late.
You get the idea! It could change Christmas from a stress roller coaster to a time of great joy as we practice the true meaning of Christmas.
Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7
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