Rethinking Christmas

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  

I sure love being with family.

December 8th Andrew and I are flying back to Arizona.  I will probably have surgery on my nose to correct the deviation and remove the spur (if you missed the last post it gives all the details about that).    When we get back you'll have to keep an eye out for all my lovely Christmas pictures with gauze stuffed up my swollen nose.  :)   Maybe I'll just pretend to be Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer all season.

 Speaking of Christmas...



Our church has been encouraging us to rethink how we view and respond to Christmas.
For quite a few years now we've been trying to break the mold of what the media promotes to create "the atmosphere of Christmas": which is consumerism.  
Here are a few things that I appreciate about what was said the past couple Sundays:

Instead of giving presents give our presence.  

Relationships. 

Spend less money, and give more of ourselves.

Instead of spending money on things that people don't really want, or will get bored with in a couple weeks, or send our credit cards to the brink, think carefully about putting together gifts that encourage spending time together.  Or make something that reflects your skills and talents you have like photography, writing, cooking, crafting, building, etc.  
Those things take time, but that adds value to your gift.


A new thought that was presented to me was:
Every dollar we spend represents what we support.  There is nothing wrong with all those great stores out there.
But what do I REALLY want to support?   

Every dollar I spend is my vote for what I support either intentionally or unintentionally.

There are many wonderful organizations that are truly helping people and meeting needs that I could support by buying gifts from them.
Start thinking outside of the box!

Check out this web site that gives many options:

Rethinking Christmas

There are many great gift ideas at that web site.   

Just think, you could buy a gift for someone you love and at the same time your gift results in truly giving to the needy and hungry.