Well, here we are. Five days until Christmas.
I know that I am stressed and that my some of my family members are stressed, too. Do you really think that what we do for Christmas has anything at all to do with the reason God sent his son? The older I get, the more I realize that we have made Christmas into something so pagan that probably disappoints our heavenly Father. Our expectations are always of peace and joy and the perfect amount of gifts and total harmony in our families. Our high expectations seem to just magnify the hurt that we are also experiencing.
While we were eating dinner last night and trying to figure out our plan and schedule for the holidays, I started thinking about doing something radically different for Christmas. What if we really focused on our hearts beginning December 1st? What if we started focusing on our relationships with our family members? What if we actively and intentionally pursued doing for those less fortunate than us? What if we went on a mission trip for Christmas? I know we do some of that to a certain extent but what if we went further? Maybe only 3 gifts per family member?Maybe no gifts? Maybe say "no" to all social commitments? Maybe my family members would kick me out. I hope not, but they just might.
I think our overall disappointment with the entire holiday is because of the focus on self. I guess all of our problems stem from selfishness. I think that there are few things that we can do to help ourselves during this season. My strategy is to pray, give and exercise!
I am really trying to increase my prayer time over the next few days. I am praying for my family and for all of our relationships. Today, the Lord just really told me to focus on the healing of our family relationships and the healing of their emotions. Today, I prayed "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." 1 Peter 2: 24 and "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." Psalm 147:3 and "Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. " James 5:16
One of my favorite things to do is to just take my Bible, open it up and walk my property line. I wait for the Lord to lead me to certain passages and I pray those passages for my family and for my home. I love to use Sylvia Gunter's Prayer Portions book and pray blessings for my family members. I have a smaller book by Sylvia Gunter called "Prayer Portions Sampler for the Family". It is awesome and can be purchased from Mark at the Carpenter's Shop in Vestavia or from Sylvia's website, The Father's Business.
I pray for spiritual blessing, emotional blessing, mental blessing, personal blessing, physical blessing and financial blessing. It is so important for us to choose to speak blessings over our family and to choose to BE a blessing!
Sylvia Gunter teaches that one of the most effective bottom line prayers for the family is "Come, Holy Spirit, into our greatest needs and give us a revelation of Jesus. " Thank goodness that Jesus lives to intercede for us, Hebrews 7:25 and that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, Romans 8:26!
Matthew 10:8 says " Freely you have received, freely give. " That's pretty clear. There are so many organizations to assist you with giving. I recently adopted an orphan through Amazima ministries. That is the ministry that Katie Davis runs in Africa. Check it out at www.amazima.org and Katie's blog is called Kisses from Katie and can be found here. There is also Compassion International, World Vision and Heifer.org! I ordered a flock of chickens for a family for $20 through Heifer!
If you don't have an extra penny to spare right now, give someone a smile. Help someone with a door at the mall. Or with their grocery cart. Compliment and encourage a salesperson in a store. Speak a blessing over perfect strangers. Volunteer at a soup kitchen or a shelter. Take your old newspapers to the pound. Do yardwork for your elderly neighbor. When our kids were little and we had no extra to spare, Rusty used to load us all up in the van to head to nursing homes. We visited with the residents, sang for them and played games with them. I think we brought candy canes. The possibilities are endless. Go for it.
And lastly, exercise! Get off of facebook and twitter and turn off the tv and get out and walk! Pray and praise while you walk. If you have a gym, go! Walk your dog! Just move and get yourself a huge helping of endorphins. I confess that I am addicted to two things and I must have them to be a kind person- coffee and endorphins.
Be intentional about this Christmas season. Pray, get some endorphins going and make your plans for this to be one of the most precious Christmases ever for your family!
