Tag: tradition

Categories
Worship

Start A New Tradition

Christmas is only 5 days away… December 25th is coming fast!
How did it get here so quickly?

Well, now that it is here, you will soon be gathered together with loved ones in the living room or den. You’ll be watching children or grandchildren open presents with smiles and laughter. You will probably eat a bit too much, but you’ll also have a great time reminiscing about family stories with people you love but don’t see often enough. These are some of the reasons that we call this holiday season “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”

But I hope you remember that the real reason it is the most wonderful time of the year is because of the Gift of Jesus.

We come up with elaborate plans to make Christmas memorable. My challenge to you this year is to strive to make Christmas memorable in regards to the gift of Jesus – God With Us!

I have known one family who baked a birthday cake and threw a birthday party each year for Jesus. I have heard of families who make this a “simplifying” time in their home – cleaning out shelves and taking unexpired food to the food pantry, going through closets and donating good clothes to a clothes closet, and asking children to give away some of their nice toys. Doing these things can remind us how we have more than enough and that others have needs at Christmastime.

(A quick “aside” – As you might could imply from what I said above about unexpired, good, nice things… I do have a problem when we give away our junk to others and then pat ourselves on the back for our generosity! “Doing unto others as you’d have done to you” requires us to give good things away! Sacrificially, Generously, & Cheerfully – that’s God’s plan for our giving. You’d be amazed at the amount of junk that was donated to our church in Bay St. Louis to distribute to people after Katrina – much of it was only fit for the trashcan! God was sacrificially generous to send Jesus to us, we are to do the same for others. OK, now back to my original points of focusing on Christ at Christmas…)

So how can you help your family focus on Jesus this year? One great new tradition you can begin this year to help do so is to read the Story of the Birth of Jesus with your family. Before you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, take time to gather your family around you and read the Christmas story from the Bible. Here are the portions that we most often use:
Luke 2:1-7 The Census, Journey, & Birth
Matt 1:18-25 The Angel Visits Joseph
Luke 2:8-20 The Shepherds & Angels
Matt 2:1-12 The Wise Men Bring Gifts

Read these Christmas story passages with your family, and then say a prayer to God thanking Him for the greatest gift of all – Jesus! That is one of the traditions my family has had for many years, and it has been a powerful memory for me throughout my life. If you haven’t made Christmas about Jesus, then I hope you will consider starting a new tradition that celebrates Jesus this year.

Categories
Christian Living

A New Tradition for Christmas

I recently shared this with my church and thought it would be good to share here as well…

We will all soon be ready to exchange gifts with one another at Christmas. In past years that would mean that Paige and I would be frantically shopping to find gifts for our family members and friends. The funny thing is…none of them ever needed any new gifts. They already had more stuff than would fit in all their closets and shelves. Have you experienced the same thing with your family? So instead of continuing to scratch our heads over what to buy, we decided to take a different approach these past few years.

Not only did we want to focus more on the true meaning of Christmas, we also wanted the children in our family to better understand the gift of Jesus and how His love should change our lives. Therefore, each adult in the now family brings about fifty bucks to put into a “pool” of funds. We then have the children in the family look through a Missions Catalog, such as the Samaritan’s Purse “Help Others at Christmas” gift catalog, to choose how we will spend the money to bless others.

The children have a great time in picking out items to help other children and families around the world – last year they chose baby chickens, a hive of honeybees, a fishing boat, medicine for health needs, Bibles, and more! Instead of searching through a toy catalog to shop for themselves, the children end up searching for gifts to give to other people in real need. This leads to some great “teachable moments” as we discuss with them the needs of others and how missionaries can use the gifts to share Christ with the families they serve. After choosing all the gifts, we say a prayer asking God to use the gifts to bless the families and to draw the family members to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

When we finished our Christmas celebration using this new tradition these past years, we hadn’t just swapped gift cards with one another… we felt that we had helped each other better understand the real meaning of Christmas by celebrating what Christ did for us and how important it is that we share Him. During this Christmas season, I hope that you will continue to think of ways to help your family be “on mission” for God.

And if your family does something special to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, share that with the rest of us. I know I’d love to hear about it and be able to share it with my church family to give them more ideas for next year!