Tag: Christmas

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The Fourth Sunday of Advent is About Love

Advent Candles

The Fourth Sunday of Advent reminds us that Jesus came to earth because of agapé love. Jesus didn’t just teach about love, he showed it, then encouraged his followers to do the same. It’s the crescendo of a month of anticipation.

When we feel gratitude for receiving hope, peace, and joy, love flows freely. It makes life much easier.

“Faith makes all things possible… love makes all things easy.”
Dwight L. Moody

Dwight L. Moody Quotes. BrainyQuote.com, BrainyMedia Inc, 2021. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/dwight_l_moody_157630, accessed December 19, 2021.

The word for love in the original Greek text is “agapé.” it is interpreted as an unconditional, unmerited, goodwill; a willful act. It is an action, not just a feeling. As a result, we can love others when they aren’t very lovable.

Nobody can fall out of agapé love. It is a choice that goes beyond feelings. When we realize what God did for us in love, it makes us reconsider how we treat others.

One of my favorite Christmas songs is When Love Came Down by Point of Grace.

Point Of Grace: When Love Came Down (Live in Wichita, KS 2015)

Christmas is coming! We have a week to prepare. But it’s about more than the presents. It’s about agapé love. We can love others because love came down on the first Christmas. Because He showed us, we can have hope, peace, joy, and love. May you experience it and be able to show it as we enter the final week of Christmas.

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Christmas holiday

Christmas Through the Eyes of a Child

There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child. Erma Bombeck

Ah! If only we could always see Christmas through the eyes of a child! I can relate to Erma Bombeck’s quote.

“There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.”

Erma Bombeck

Erma Bombeck Quotes. BrainyQuote.com, BrainyMedia Inc, 2021. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/erma_bombeck_124420, accessed December 18, 2021.

When we were children, Christmas was always a magical time of the year. We had big wishes for amazing toys. Many of us reasoned if we just got our act together between Thanksgiving and Christmas, hopefully, Santa wouldn’t notice our behavior the other eleven months of the year.

Then we grew up. Some of us got naughty while others remained nice. It seemed to be so easy for those made of sugar, spice, and everything nice.

Naughty and Nice Photo
I must have been naughty in 2014, while my wife remained nice.

Christmas morning is a little different when you are grown up and spent the night before deciphering assembly instructions, written in questionable English. Many a Christmas Eve, early Christmas morning, I would be squinting in the low light while the TV proclaimed midnight mass from the Vatican. It made it very difficult to get mad and throw things when the Pope was blessing everything and everyone.

Now, not only am I grown up, but so are my kids. And there aren’t any grandchildren yet. It feels like a bit of a Christmas desert these days. There are no toys under the tree. Instead, there is a surely cat (she’s not a Christmas present. She just likes to lay under there and chew fake pine needles). And this year, there won’t be excited kids getting us up to announce the obvious; that it’s Christmas morning.

Is it as sad as Erma Bombeck proclaimed? Perhaps not. I still have a very nice, beautiful wife that just oozes Christmas spirit. She knows just what I need, even though I had no clue. Who would’ve thought I was out of tube socks anyway? I sure didn’t!

My hope for you is that if you have young children, it will be a wonderful magical Christmas for you this year. If not, may you be able to reach back into time, reminisce about a few Christmases long ago, and see it through the eyes of a child. I think that’s what I’ll be doing with my sugar and spice wife.

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Christmas holiday

Christmas Reality Shows

Christmas Reality Shows

I’ve watched a lot of Christmas reality shows this year. If it isn’t a Christmas bake-off, it’s a decoration competition. I’ve watched a lot of people get very busy impressing judges for fabulous prizes.

I drew this cartoon eleven years ago. Apparently, I was watching a lot of them in 2010 as well. It still amazes me reality shows have been around that long, even longer! But it must be so because the mobile phone the elf is holding sure doesn’t hold up to today’s technology.

Cartoon of an elf and Santa Claus. The elf says, "It's another cable TV producer asking if we'd like to be in a reality show."

I hope Santa Claus doesn’t cave into the pressure. If you think we have supply chain issues now, just think what it would be if the elves had to ham it up for the cameras! Does anything really get done on those shows? I’d like to see how productivity fared before and after one of these programs invades a company!

Reality gets distorted when a camera is on. If you Google “Cameras in the Courtroom Effects,” you’ll get plenty of examples where cameras affected a trial. Reality is rarely recorded before a camera. How many of us ham it up for a photo, or stage a shot for social media?

I will still watch the occasional reality show. But I am under no allusion that I’m watching reality. I hope Santa agrees with that too.

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Christmas holiday

Good News and Bad News

Good News and Bad News

“Bad news travels at the speed of light; good news travels like molasses.”

Tracy Morgan Via BrainyQuote.com

We have no trouble finding bad news. It practically hits us in the face every time we turn around. Doom and gloom is a trillion-dollar business. We would like to think that we prefer the good, but there is something within us that reacts more strongly to the bad. How much gossip is about the good qualities of a person anyway?

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.”

Luke 2:10 (KJV) via Bible Gateway

On the night the Messiah was born, glad tidings didn’t go to the Roman Emperor, though he ruled the known world. It didn’t go to the puppet king of Israel. In fact, when he eventually heard the good it, he reacted very negatively.

Lowly Shepherds

The people that the world thought mattered didn’t hear the good report that night. If they did, they would have kept it to themselves anyway. Good news travels generally travels like molasses!

Instead, it went to lowly shepherds. When they saw it, they did their best to share it with everyone. Still, the family of the newborn Messiah was able to keep a low profile.

Glad Tidings This Christmas

As a result, in the last couple of years, Christmas has taken a back seat to all the bad. There is plenty of bad news to go around.

  • The pandemic drags on and a new variant threatens to spread like wildfire
  • Tornadoes caused death and destruction to America’s midsection
  • Nations continue saber rattling

Therefore, we need a little joy. We need a little Christmas, even though the first one was humble and mild. We need a savior, a redeemer. Yes, we need a hero. But having someone come to save us usually doesn’t make the news. It makes for great stories, but not click-bait headlines.

Let’s pause, take a breath, and look for the good. It is out there. After all, we can do something good. There are plenty of needs out there. We don’t have to single-handedly save the world, but we can help one person, one family at a time. Let’s be kind in a world that has forgotten how to be gentle.

We can make some good news. Our actions may not travel fast and furious across the world, but they can make a big difference this holiday season.

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Christmas holiday

The Third Sunday of Advent is about Joy

Advent Candles

Joy has been something we’ve all sought the last two years. We’ve kept hoping the pandemic would be over soon, only to realize more challenges were on the way. Where is our Christmas joy?

Last night, I saw a battle under a Christmas tree. An adult got a remote-controlled toy at a Christmas party. The children were thrilled and the adult allowed them to try it out.

One preschool boy was having a blast but was a little rough with it. When he steered the toy into a wall, the adult knew this wasn’t going to end well. So he took the toy from the boy. The boy’s joy quickly turned into a grinchy pouting match. It looked a little like this cartoon:

Cartoon of an annoyed girl and a boy with a santa hat

I’ve had a few tips in the past that are easy to implement when you’re giving advice, but challenging when you are in the midst of pacifying a preschooler with a wounded ego, and dashed Christmas hopes.

How to teach your kids about Christmas Joy

Joy can be challenging when things aren’t going our way. But when our faith is based on a foundation much stronger than our circumstances, it is possible! As we light the third candle of Advent this Sunday morning, we can remember there is someone coming who brings glad tidings of great joy!