12/15 Merry Christmas Series

Part 2 of 5

1. Relax

I say this because it seems that too many people are so uptight during this season. If you don’t believe me, just watch how frustrated people are in the malls and store parking lots. If you are not careful, you’ll get ran over by people who are in a hurry. The frustration mounts as you have so many activities and obligations that you have to do during this time of the year, that you soon lose the enjoyment if you don’t learn to relax.

For instance, don’t kill yourself trying to get to every Christmas function. You are only one person, and can only be at so many functions. What you ought to do is plan which functions you will attend. Then, when someone comes and asks you to attend their function, you can politely tell them that you already have something planned.

The best way to relax is to schedule your Christmas season. Every year you will probably have the same functions going on, so plan your Christmas season and what you and your family will do so that you can relax and enjoy it. Plan when you are going to shop for gifts. Plan what you are going to get for each family member before you go to the store. (This will help you from being frustrated as you shop.) Plan where you will celebrate Christmas. Plan how much time you will spend at each Christmas function. Plan what Christmas functions you are going to attend. Plan out the whole Christmas season so that you can relax and enjoy each function.

2. Keep God in your Christmas.

I know I don’t need to remind you of this, but what is Christmas without Christ? If you take God out of Christmas, then you are taking the whole purpose of the season away. To be frank with you, Christmas is not about what we get out of it, but it is truly about Christ. If we didn’t get one gift, or go to one party, or attend one Christmas function, but spent time keeping God happy, then we would have a great Christmas. A Christmas without God is not a Christmas at all.

With this in mind, you need to be sure that Christ is your primary focus throughout the season. Be sure that you don’t miss church during the Christmas season. It always amazes me how churches will close down because of Christmas. It amazes me because Christmas is supposed to be about Christ. To be honest with you, if your church cancels services because of Christmas, you should look for another church. I have heard of pastors saying that they want people to have family time during Christmas, of which I am not against, but Christmas is not about family time but about Christ.

You can keep God in your Christmas by purchasing a special gift for Him. Maybe you could give a special Christmas offering to your church as a gift to Christ. You could help the poor enjoy a Christmas as a gift to Christ. As a family you need to be sure to give Christ a gift on His birthday.

One of the easiest ways to keep God in Christmas is to read the Christmas story on Christmas day. Every year our family reads the Christmas story before we open gifts. We always spend some time in prayer after reading the story to thank Christ for coming to Earth so we could be saved from sin. When you read the story, have your children take turns reading the story, it will get them involved in keeping God in Christmas.