This Christmas

by Jackie Dove-Miller

Remember when you were a child
And you waited impatiently
While The days til Christmas
Poked along, Forcing you to
Be good day after day
So Santa would come
Your way On Christmas day?
Remember your anticipation…
Absolutely no relaxation
The night before?
Couldn’t eat
Couldn’t sleep
Forever trying to take
One peek at the gifts under the tree
With your name?
Wasn’t that just the best?
Something to remember
For the rest of your life!

But, Growing older, we learned
That the true gift of Christmas
Is God’s great love unearned
The purchase price- the life of his son.
Christ’s birth was met, I’m willing to bet
With the same anxious waiting
By those who knew he was
Coming just for them.

But, somewhere within
Christmas lost its true meaning
Prompting a wise-cracking writer
To facetiously to pen,
“Whoever dies with the most toys wins!”

“Whoever dies with the most toys…
Wins.”

What a cynical editorial on
Modern man’s sin
Of gluttony and heedless collecting
Of things.

What the writer means without saying
Is that we live as though laying up treasures
Will win Our seat in Heaven.
But it won’t.
And if we don’t open our eyes
And stop telling ourselves lies
About what it means
To live Christmas
The writer’s true point will be
“Whoever dies, dies.”
For Christ’s promise will be empty:

I came so that you might have life
And have it more abundantly. John 10:10

But storing up toys doesn’t increase our joy
It just adds more stuff to our stink.
Unlike the gifts of today
God’s gift wasn’t for play
Or show
Or to throw away once all the sweetness
Is chewed away.
God’s gift was His son…
The only one
Whose life promised life
Once we’ve begun to follow His lead.

Christ brought new ideas
To a stagnant world
The notion that what is good
and right and just
Means more than man-made laws
He showed human-kind the awe and splendor
Of beauty and truth
Explained that faith, not proof
Is all that is necessary for those
Who are called.

And we are all called…
To a life of abundant joy.

So gifts under the tree
May bring child-like glee
But not substance
Nor the assurance
Or the abundance
That Christ as more
In our lives would bring.
More Christ would mean we
Love more, care more, share more,
Live more fully in our spirit-selves;
Give more purely from our spirit-selves.

An abundant life then, one might say
Is to live as though
Christmas is everyday.
Now, that would be the best gift to give
The promise to live knowing
Christ’s example is showing through us.
The exaltation and jubilation of Christmas
Past Would fill our interactions
From day to day
And we would know
Wherever we go that love and joy and
The promise of good cheer
Would greet us at each opening door.

So if hoarding gifts were really a competition
It would be more evident then
That for us to win…
Christ is a Must.

So here is the message this Christmas to send:
Whoever dies with the most Christ within… wins.

The Gift That Keeps Giving

It seems almost impossible that another year has come and gone and yet it has. Already I feel myself pulled in to the Christmas rat race. Will I get it all done and a host of other thoughts swirl around in my head. How can I spend less, cut corners, etc. etc? How sad that Christmas has become about a to do list, shopping, finding the perfect gift, parties and a host of other things that so so easily distract and consume our time, energy and resources. Many this year feel the pressures and weight of it all because of economic hardships and difficulties.

When you think about it, the greatest gift given did not come in a dollar bill or as an expensive present. It came in the form of a human baby. God took on human flesh so mankind could come up close and intimately experience God with “skin on.”

Could it be that the most important gift that you and I can give this Christmas or any season is really the same kind of gift, the gift with “skin on”? While gifts, toys and trinkets are nice and we all like them, the truth is the most precious gift we can offer our family, our children or our friends is the gift of ourselves.
No gift, card or present will ever replace you! The truth is you matter, your presence matters. What you have to give really does make a difference. People want to experience the “real you” and not a substitute.

So this Christmas, rather than worrying about the “perfect gift” or how you can cut corners, why not give the gift that keeps on giving - the gift of you! Be a gift with “skin on” to someone who could use a special touch this holiday season. Give away some of your time and talents. Give from your heart. Give your love away. Be generous. I believe you will discover that the gift of “you” is always the perfect gift, never out of style and always just the right size. It really will be the gift that keeps giving!

A New Perspective

Major life events always have a way of waking us up to what really matters the most to us. I woke up Sunday morning only to be greeted by the news that a tornado had caused massive damage in the middle of the night to a town 35 miles southeast of where I live. That’s getting rather close! What if it had been my neighborhood? It was only a county away. Talk about getting a new perspective on life!

These days with all that is happening in the news around us and the economy we are all being challenged about our "perspectives." One could easily agree with Charles Dickens that these are “the best of times and the worst of times.” I guess it depends on what side of the fence you are on and more importantly how you view it!

As a certified life coach, I am profoundly aware that life is about perspective. It really does matter how you view or see things. You might say one will go only as far in life as their perspective will take them. What’s your perspective on life? Is the glass half empty of half full with you? Is your focus constantly on your problems or what’s wrong or missing in your life, or on what’s right about your life and what you have to be grateful for? It really does matter how you view things.

A man who had lost his job and was suicidal called his minister and told him that because he had lost his job he was suicidal. The minister’s response was – “Can you walk? Can you talk? Can you see? Well, I figure you have just about everything. You have only lost a job.” Talk about perspective! After the damage had been done in this recent tornado, one man made a very profound statement. His statement came after observing that one half of his house was flattened by the tornado while the other half has been destroyed by a tree. It's hard to believe, it's hard to take in," Stephenson said but "We've got our lives and our health, so we're good to go.” We’re good to go- now that’s perspective! I believe this man’s perspective will no doubt help him to make it in the days ahead.

If our life flows from our perspective and I believe it does, then maybe we could all learn a few things from the courage and heroic lives of others like Mr. Stephenson. Things may not be great or as we would like them but as long as we are living and breathing we are “good to go.”

Andy Andrews, motivational speaker and author, recently wrote an article on hope. I believe he says it best. Andy shares some of his own personal struggles of losing his home to a hurricane and other major life events. “Even in the worst of times, I must remember that I am still breathing. If I am still breathing, that means that I am still here. If I am still here, that means that I have not completed what I was put here to do. If I have not completed what I was put here to do, that means that my very purpose has not been fulfilled. If my very purpose has not been fulfilled, that means that the most important part of my life has yet to be lived. If the most important part of my life has yet to be lived, then it doesn't really matter how old I am or how broke I am, how long I've tried or how depressed I might be ... Here, at last, is proof that the best part of my life is ahead of me! Without a doubt, there is more laughter to come, more success in my future… there is more” Now, that my friend is quite a perspective, and better yet, a great way to live!