This Christmas season God has been revealing something to me. It isn't pretty, nice, or festive. In other words, it doesn't give me ANY warm fuzzies. :P He has been showing me how selfish I am, and how Christmas is so not about me.
Isn't it so true? That we find out how tightly we are clenching our fists around something exactly when it starts to get pulled away? That the things we would never call idols are revealed to be just that, when God starts to gently lift them from our lives?
I went into the holiday season with MY expectations, MY wants, MY hands open looking to be filled. There was nothing of Christ's serving and sacrificial spirit in the way I pouted when things weren't going "my way."
At the worst of it all, my mother lovingly showed me the small printing about Christmas that our church's bulletin had on the back this week. She simply said, "Read it." I read it. And cried. It was exactly what I needed. In fact, it seemed to have been written for me specifically! :) It's by one of my favorite authors, Henry Van Dyke, and you can read it here.
It's all about forgetting yourself and seeing what you can do for others. Make someone else's holiday bright this year. Put a smile on someone's face, even if it costs you something. What is sacrifice without cost, anyway?
I'm here this morning writing this to encourage you, but also to thank you. I cherish you, my friends! You have done that service for me. You have blessed me and made me smile even if it didn't bring you some reward or blessing in return. I thank you, and wish you the very merriest of Christmases! :)
I went into the holiday season with MY expectations, MY wants, MY hands open looking to be filled. There was nothing of Christ's serving and sacrificial spirit in the way I pouted when things weren't going "my way."
At the worst of it all, my mother lovingly showed me the small printing about Christmas that our church's bulletin had on the back this week. She simply said, "Read it." I read it. And cried. It was exactly what I needed. In fact, it seemed to have been written for me specifically! :) It's by one of my favorite authors, Henry Van Dyke, and you can read it here.
It's all about forgetting yourself and seeing what you can do for others. Make someone else's holiday bright this year. Put a smile on someone's face, even if it costs you something. What is sacrifice without cost, anyway?
I'm here this morning writing this to encourage you, but also to thank you. I cherish you, my friends! You have done that service for me. You have blessed me and made me smile even if it didn't bring you some reward or blessing in return. I thank you, and wish you the very merriest of Christmases! :)
