Worth a look! What one CBC family does intentionally during this Christmas season! Dear Church Family, Someone on an online forum I belong to recently asked this question: “How do we keep Jesus Christ and His birth at the center of our Christmas celebration?” This really got me thinking and I pray that my response will bless you, too. I was not raised in a Christian home. Our family never, ever went to church - not even at Christmas or Easter - unless my grandparents took us. We never, ever prayed or read the Bible or talked about God in any intimate way. And yet, my family celebrated Christmas. We put up stockings and a Christmas tree and exchanged gifts and my parents played Santa just like everyone else. By the time I was a teenager, I was an outspoken atheist that found pleasure in ridiculing and arguing with Christians. So when I was in college, I questioned my parents about our Christmas festivities, asking them why we celebrated Christmas if we werent Christians. I still wanted to exchange gifts (come on, who wouldnt?), but I wished we would do it for New Years so that it wasnt a religious event. I dont actually remember how this played out, but the point is that I knew that whatever we were doing wasnt right. Sadly, despite being a hard-hearted atheist, I really had no idea what Christianity was all about. I did not understand that Christians believed that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh and that Christmas was celebrated to remember the day He was born on earth to live as a man. I also did not realize that Easter was the celebration of His resurrection from the dead after He had shed His blood on the cross to pay the penalty for mans sin. It was not until many heated debates with a Christian young man (who later became my husband) that I heard the good news of the gospel - that I could be forgiven and set free from my slavery to sin by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on my behalf. So, with that background, let me encourage everyone how IMPORTANT it is to keep CHRIST at the focus of your Christmas celebrations. That is certainly a good question to ask, but, at the same time, I fear that the question that’s being asked is actually the wrong question. I think the real question, the better question, is this: HOW DO WE KEEP CHRIST AT THE CENTER OF OUR EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE YEAR LIFE? This is really the heart of the matter because I think that as we keep our heart focused on Him, when we live and move and have our being in Him, then He will be guiding us away from the crazy busy commercialization of this holiday that has actually become more of a deterrent to our devotion to Jesus than an asset. In response to the question – “How do we keep Christ at the center of Christmas,” the answer is to walk by faith and not by sight, to set our minds on things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. Every advent activity needs to be evaluated by whether it is drawing your family closer to Jesus or pushing you farther away. Yes, we festively decorate our home and Christmas tree. Yes, we buy gifts for our children and other members of our family. Yes, we drive around town and look at the pretty Christmas lights. But, no, we don’t spend days and weeks putting up and taking down decorations. We refuse to go into debt feeding our kids’ appetites for stuff and our own appetite to impress others with our earthly possessions. And, no, we do not attend a dozen holiday plays, cookie exchanges and Santa Claus festivals because truthfully they take our family’s eyes off the true GIFT of Jesus and just add busy-ness to our already full lives. But, once again, these are not decisions that are made just for the Christmas advent season, these are decisions that we have to make each and every day. Every day we have to choose for ourselves who we will serve and as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. This means walking daily deciding what God wants us to do that particular day and that particular week, rather than just saying, “Yes” to every fun opportunity that comes our way. Truthfully, in my almost 20 years now of being a follower of Jesus Christ, I have learned that the Christian life is so much more than a list of do’s and don’ts, shoulds and shouldn’ts. It really is a living relationship with the great Creator, the Ruler of the Universe and the Lord of my soul. If the Lord is calling you to spend a month putting on a Christmas play for your neighbors, if the Lord is calling you to organize the cookie exchange to end all cookie exchanges, if the Lord is calling you to decorate your home in a thousand lights, then DO IT! But, don’t do it to “keep up with the Joneses.” Don’t do it because “everybody’s doing it.” Truly, when you seek the Lord with all your heart, you will find Him. Trust Him. His Word is a light to Your feet. Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. As for our family, here are some things we do that help us not lose Jesus in the midst of our Christmas celebration – We limit ourselves to three gifts per child. This limits not only the money, but also the time and energy, we spend on Christmas gifts. Each of our four children choose a gift for each of their siblings and parents. They use their own money that they have earned doing chores throughout the year to buy them. This helps them focus on the giving, rather than just the receiving, of gifts. My husband and I and our children give our gifts to the recipients, rather than taking our gifts. This, too, helps to keep the focus on giving rather than receiving. My husband and I try to have most of our gifts bought before December 1, so my mind is not being consumed by shopping. The stress of finding “just the right gifts” was frequently enough to make me anxious and angry, not good for the Christmas spirit. I have to commit myself to going to bed on time every night. If it’s not done by 10:30, then it doesn’t need to be done. Tomorrow is another day. A tired mommy is a cranky mommy. We enjoy sending Christmas letters – now via email – but try to keep the focus on the goodness of God and His sustaining grace. We spread out opening gifts over several days or even weeks. With two sets of out-of-town grandparents, plus aunts and uncles, plus our own family’s gifts, we wanted everyone’s gifts to receive the attention they deserved. This means our kids might receive their gifts from us a week before Christmas, so that they can enjoy them and still appreciate the gifts from their grandparents they’ll receive on Christmas Eve. Does this make sense? We taught our kids from a young age that playing pretend is fun, but it’s just pretend. God is real. Santa is pretend. We used to “play Santa” and do stockings and leave Santa cookies, but our kids knew the truth. I know this is a big can of worms I’m opening here, but I believe God wants us to be truth bearers and I wanted my kids to know that Mommy always speaks the truth. I want them to trust me, to know that I will not deceive them. That does not mean that we can’t play pretend – but they know we are pretending. Does this make sense? Christmas morning we have family breakfast and worship before any gifts are opened. And, yes, we do try to have daily prayer and scripture reading and discussion as a family. But, this is not just for the advent season. Why would we only read the Bible for the couple weeks before Christmas? Jesus is not just the King of Christmas, He is the King every day of the year! I love you guys and I pray that this is an encouragement to you. I am in no way writing this to make you feel guilty about what you’re not doing. No! I am writing this because I’ve had to make it up as I go along for the last twenty years and I am grateful that the Lord has impressed this on me. In His Service and In His Grip, Kim Endraske Kim.endraske@gmail
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 16:17:15 +0000