THE AMERICAN CHRISTMAS

Greetings in the name of Jesus:


The Christmas Season is upon us once more, and it is a challenge to get everything our children's hearts desires! I can't help but wonder deep in a child's heart what it is they want more than toy's or things?  I keep coming back to the real needs we have in this life of love and security.  Providing those basic needs for a vast majority of children is being overlooked as we try to cover having a good conversation by giving them a bribe to keep them happy for maybe a week before it is the same ole situation all over again.
  We need to ask ourselves if the decorations we put up are an act of celebration or if they are being used as a disguise?  I fear that we may be covering over much of what we want to hide from the world around us through the disguise of tensile and gifts that we have no real reason to give to someone other than it is the Season.  I like the celebrations as much as anyone else, but not so much in a mindless frenzy of buy/sell that we tend to go through this time of year.  I don't believe that people can appreciate gifts given out of a sense of a social theme as much as those which are given from the heart.

  I believe that goes for our children as well...not that the gifts we give are not given out of a sense of love, but not always are they given out a sense of thought.  What about the gift of our time as much as the gift of purchase we make at these times.in the year.  Our investment in one another at this time of year can mean more than you might think.  More so than the colorful decorations we may surround ourselves with or the gift box that is beautiful for us to hold in our hands there another more personal gift that we should give others first; and that is the gift of self.  It all comes back to the first gift given to us as a creation, which is God's love to us.  We wonder often times about the lack of Christmas Spirit that we have in our celebrations today, and yet many times fail to realize how little effort we have actually put in the actual gift of love we have in this Season for others in our lives who need to be recognized.  Those who have actually touched our lives this last year in a special way are a part of God's continued gift of love to you.  I want to take the time and make the effort to love those who mean so much to me in this life.  I want for you to do the same, and feel the difference it makes in your celebration this year.  Keep each other in prayer within your heart, and love as God has intended for us to love.  We can only really come into true relationship with each other through our spiritual connections anyway, so let's pursue God's way of loving this year.  May you richly bless God through your life in Him.




THE UNWORTHY SERVANT