It is more blessed to give
Christmas music is playing on our stereo, my gifts are all wrapped, cookie, muffin, and bread mixes are all made, and I've almost found the bottom of the laundry pile. Hurrah!The best part of all is that I really and truly enjoyed every moment of my short stint of Christmas preparations this morning. And I'm looking forward even more to this weekend when I can give the gifts to their recipients, spend special time with family, and reflect on the greatest gift ever given to man - Christ Jesus Himself. Though He wasn't born on December 25th or even close thereto (despite what some of the Christmas songs say!), I love this season of the year when we take extra time to reflect on the wonder of His birth.
I mentioned earlier that Jesse and I try to keep Christmas really simple around here. We don't want to buy into all the commercialized hype which has, sadly, become known as "Christmas" to most of the world. We've wrestled over celebrating Christmas at all, but have come to the conclusion that at this point in our lives, we want to redeem Christmas in our home for God's glory.
For this reason, we've chosen to focus extra time and energy during the month of December on giving to others. We've found such joy in coming up with creative, meaningful gifts for friends and family members, all the while sticking with the cash budgeted in our envelope designated for gifts. Most of all, we've enjoyed looking for opportunities to reach out to those in special need. We found a family who was very physically needy and were able to give them some boxes of food, essential household items, gift cards, and cash. We found out about another woman who was spiritually needy and were able to reach out and give her some things to, Lord-willing, help fill this void in her life.
There are so many, many people who are hurting and needy. Sure, we're not floating in wealth, but compared to these people who can't even afford basic necessities, we are very rich. And as God has blessed us, we want to bless others. We also want to teach out children that, "It is more blessed to give, than to receive." For after all, isn't that the real meaning of Christmas?
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9
posted by Crystal Paine at 2:42 PM
7 Comments:
What a beautiful post about what Christmas really is. The honoring of our Lord Jesus Christ for all that he has done for us.
Merry Christmas,
Trixie
Homemade mixes! Sounds like a terrific idea. Care to share your favorite recipes?? Please, please :-).
Wonderful post, Crystal! We enjoy a simple holiday as well with time to reflect on the real reason-Jesus Christ! I have thought alot about how wealthy we truly are in the last several months. Like you, by the world's standards we are not considered rich, but by God's system we are extremely blessed, with a little extra to give to others! Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas! Thank you for blessing me ALL year with your gift of encouragement by your Biblical Womanhood blog and mostly your example to others... Thanks again for the wonderful package! I am REALLY enjoying the "52" book right now!
It sounds as if you are feeling a little better too! I am happy you are!
xoxo
Merry Christmas
Homemakerang
Crystal, thank you for that beautiful and inspiring post! I hope you and your family have a blessed Christmas.
This post touched my heart. Thank you Crystal. I am always looking for ways to help Christian sisters and their families or heck, just about anyone. I have been able to extend our finances to several sisters that I have "met" thru one of the Yahoo groups I am on and. It felt good to give. When we lived in OK we gave a few dollars to some of the homeless people who would be in front of Hastings. They were very nice people cuz we would sit there and talk with them. They just fell on hard times. We all do...
Merry Christmas Crystal!!!
Love from Germany!
It's great to find others who are actually celebrating the birth of Christ on Christmas!
My husband, who isn't a believer, was still moved by my pastor's speech on Christmas Eve which said that Christmas is about our Lord. He tried explaining all this to his mother-in-law on Christmas (he was really moved by the sermon), but she still insists that Christmas is all about the kids. Then my husband had to defend my beliefs on believer's baptism. Then came the surprise about the fact that my hubby has the final say in things! I won't even go into the whole Santa down-play and avoidance of anything not Christ-related on Christmas in our home!
Well, now I'm getting off track from my first paragraph. But while I'm at it,I just ask that everyone keep my husband in your prayers that he'll be saved someday soon.
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!
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