Keeping Home’s Blog

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A New Way of Looking at Christmas

Several months ago I posted about A New Way of Looking at Holidays. This whole concept applies best to the biggest holiday of the year—Christmas.

I strongly believe that Christmas can be either a curse or a blessing. It’s really not going to be neutral unless you ignore it. Of course, some things about it might be a blessing while others are a curse, too, but who wants it to be anything but a blessing?

I said:

Instead of holidays:

Taking up your time

Sapping your energy

Taking your money

Stressing you out

Demanding your attention

Encouraging self-indulgence

Does that sound familiar?

So how do we make our celebration of Christmas a blessing and not a curse?

Our celebration of Christmas can be self-centered or it can be others-centered. When God gave His Son, and when Jesus gave Himself, to the human race He had to be self-less and concerned about us. That wasn’t something They could do for Their own entertainment. Any celebration of Christmas, the season in which we commemorate that giving, must be self-less and giving. Any other type of celebration totally misses the point. In fact, selfcenteredness, as opposed to selflessness and giving, is utterly un-Christian. The two are incompatible.

So how does this translate into the way we celebrate Christmas? It’s not a do list or a don’t list. More than anything else, the way we do Christmas is the way we are. We could give, give, give during this season and still be selfish. Self-centered. Self-serving.

This goes deep. Far beneath the outward actions. Our inward thoughts, feelings, motives—seen clearly by the God whose eyes “run to and fro throughout the whole earth” (2 Chro. 16:9 )—are the real us.

There are two basic principles in all of life (indeed, in all the universe): Love and self-service. They are opposing principles, incompatible, and as opposite as opposite can be. God is motivated by love, Satan by self-service, and the distinction between the two principles is just as marked as that between God (who is love) and Satan.

Love—the principle—is not a feeling. It is the exact opposite of self-service. Let’s see what the Bible has to say about love. I know you’ve heard it before, but hear it again. This is not a touchy-feely discourse, nor is it a theological side trip. This is it—as it as it can get.

. . . Yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love,

I have become like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy,

and understand all mysteries,

and all knowledge; and though I have all faith,

so that I could remove mountains,

and have not love,

I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,

and though I give my body to be burned,

and have not love, it profits me nothing.

~~~~

It’s sounding important, but what is it?

~~~~

Love is patient, and is kind;

love does not envy;

love does not brag on itself,

is not arrogant,

Does not behave itself rudely,

is not self-seeking,

is not easily provoked,

keeps no accounts of evil;

Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three;

but the greatest of these is love.

This high standard nearly brings tears to my eyes—because it is so good, yet so high above us. Anything less than this may be a stepping-stone but it can never be the standard.

Now, back to Christmas. Like I said, it’s not about a do or a don’t list. Whether we are self-centered or others-centered is about our whole attitude toward other people. It doesn’t mean we must always do things someone else’ way (if everyone did that it would result in a lot of arguing!) or that we can’t do things we like or enjoy. Rather, it means: do we have to have our way or is everyone else’ way just as important as ours? Is our goal in life making ourselves happy or is it helping and blessing others, and making them happy?

Selfishness makes Christmas ugly. Okay, maybe there is a do list, or a to do list. This year let’s:

1. Help others (please remember that your immediate family members are “others” too)’

2. Bless others.

3. Try to make others happy

4. And, while we may seek to do things we want to, let’s not put ourselves first, consider ourselves too superior or too (ahem) equal to serve others, or consider our desires too important to focus on others.

If it’s all about us we just don’t get it—and we’ll ruin a holiday that has the potential to be a blessing.

*1 Corinthians 12:31 through 13:13 ~ paraphrase of the KJV, marginal reading.*

She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.

~ Proverbs 31: 13

Day by day, dear Lord, of Thee

Three things I pray:

To see Thee more clearly,

Love Thee more dearly,

Follow Thee more nearly,

Day by day.

~ Richard of Chichester

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“. . . the fact that you are a Christian

should show in some practical area

of a growing creativity and sensitivity to beauty,

rather than a gradual drying up of creativity,

and a blindness to ugliness.”

~ Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking, p. 33

*******

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Blessed be the Lord,

who daily loadeth us with benefits,

even the God of our Salvation.

~ Psalm 68:19

I think we sometimes forget what Thanksgiving is all about. it’s not a day off from work, a day to get together with family, a day to eat a big dinner. It’s not Turkey Day. It’s a day of giving thanks. To whom? Ourselves? Each other? Hardly! It is a day of giving thanks to God!

While we should give thanks to God every day, I think it is certainly appropriate to have a special day each year just for this purpose. Let us, so far as possible, spend this Thanksgiving giving thanks.

How?

Thank God. During personal devotions, during family worship, at the breakfast table, at the dinner table, at the supper table, thank Him generally and specifically. Read Psalms or poetry of praise and thanksgiving. Sing songs of praise and thanksgiving. Share things you are thankful for. Specifically thank God for some of the things you are grateful for and for His blessings throughout the past year.

Spend time with those whom you are thankful for. Call your friends (or send them an email if you don’t want to interrupt their family time), call your family members. Rather than just wishing them a happy Thanksgiving, tell them that you are thankful for them! Spend quality time with your family (even if that means making a simpler dinner). Husbands, which are you more thankful for—football or your wife? Do things together that you will all enjoy, or trade off and do something together that is special for each person (even if it’s football!).

Bless those whom you are most thankful for. Not only would you bless them with quality time together, but also in other ways. Tell them you are thankful for them. Thank God for them when you pray, out loud. Look for little ways to show them you care about them. Do them a favor. Feed them their favorite foods.

Act thankful for what God has given you. When you give someone a gift, you want them to use it and care for it, don’t you? I think God is the same. God gave you life: don’t misuse it. God gave you health: preserve it. God gave you money: spend it wisely. God gave you a husband or wife or children: don’t mistreat them. God gave you sons and daughters: don’t spoil them but rather raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord to be useful and holy. God gave you a home: enjoy it. God gave you a job: do it. God gave you creativity: create. God gave you a love of music: do music. God gives beauty: appreciate it. Revel in His goodness. Even if things are not going very well right not, God is still good. He is with you, to comfort and guide you, and He gave you a Savior.

Share God’s blessings with others. By all means you should share your blessings with your immediate family, extended family, and friends, but that is not enough. God designs not that we should merely share with those who are especially dear to us, but to those who have the greatest needs: the poor, the needy, the sick, the weary, the lost, the burdened, the cold, the hungry, the outcast, the lonely, the discouraged, the grieving. If we do this only with those close to us, many people will be without help because not everyone has someone who can or is willing to help them. God gave to you, you give to others. It’s as simple as that. Money is greatly needed in this work of blessing others, but remember that money is not the only thing God blesses people with.

Please share your thoughts and your plans for this Thanksgiving!

*Inappropriate links will be removed*

~ Keep it Simple. Make it Good. ~

Our greatest glory

consists not in never falling,

but in rising every time we fall.

~ Oliver Goldsmith

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;

and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him,

and he shall direct thy paths.

~ Proverbs 3:5-6.