Getting Ready for the Holidays
Well, we all know that the holidays are coming upon us. We are already being bombarded with Black Friday ad enticing us to spend money. Rightfully so since so many people’s livelihoods depend on people doing so. For some the first sentence might read “we all know the holidays are looming over us.” We feel pressured to fall into certain traditions to make a season of goodwill and cheer. For many of us we feel the responsibility to make it happen for our families and even our friends. This year probably poses more challenges than ever with the cost of actual living expenses going through the roof. We dread opening our utility bills, seeing the price of our most needed food staples go up every week, and watching the price of gas double since holidays two years ago. We doubt the rhetoric from both aisles of the political arena who believe they can fix this. In my life experience I have never really seen prices go down once they go up. It is just a fact of life. But it does present its problems. Most are learning to adjust.
However, the holiday season may seem a little slimmer than the last one and even the one before that. But we can enjoy it if we focus on what is important. Open your eyes and count the blessings you have and do not begrudge what you do not have. Understand the real meaning of giving within the scope of your means rather than your desires. All gifts are good not matter how small. People relish the giving of time and love more than they do things. My mother always remembered the Christmas that was very slim in their house during the depression. Her father was fortunate enough to have a job on the railroad and was able to provide food for the table and pay household bills and not much more. She was the youngest of 7 children and at the age of 15 she lost her mother to cancer. Back then she said she did not appreciate the homemade gifts that she received. But later she realized the love that went into each. She mostly remembers the necklace made of beads from her most beloved sister. The gifts were worthless as far as value, but the love was priceless. I saw this in my mother’s family in the years I grew up.
What is important is how you see God. God gave everything for people who had nothing. He gave the important things—a reason for our living, a hope of eternal life, an escape for our failures, grace, mercy, and unconditional love. I love the sound of unconditional love. Hard to find that these days and yet I see, it in many people. You don’t shun that kind of love. You don’t resent that kind of love. You don’t try to redefine it. You accept it. You respond to it positively. You are moved to faith, a faith that will rescue you, restore you, redeem you, and give you the strength to get through these trying times. Concentrate on the gift of Jesus in your life this holiday season and see how you can experience a good will and cheer that you can have for yourself and for your loved ones. Remember, for God so loved…….
Be Encouraged, Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Ray
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