i can't wait for christmas!

The Preacher and I have never celebrated Halloween as a holiday. We just didn't feel like Halloween lent itself to celebrating Christian values. And when our son was born, we decided to continue with our convictions.

During the fall season, when he was 4 or 5 years old, he and I would go for a walks in our neighborhood. I homeschooled and we would often take these walks to help him clear his head. As we walked down the street we were noticing how many of the homes were decorated for Halloween.

There were faux gravestones, giant spiders with giant webs, ghosts made of white trash bags and orange lights strewn in the trees.

Our son asked me why we didn't have any decorations in our yard and why we didn't go trick-or-treating. I then proceeded to explain to him the conviction his dad and I had and I told him some of Halloween's origins in a way I thought my young son could understand.

After my explanation, our son was very quiet, he didn't say anything while we passed by a couple more houses, decked out in all their Halloween glory.

He then stopped and exclaimed, "I can't wait for Christmas!"

I believe there is something inside all of us that wants to celebrate something.

If you choose to celebrate Halloween, please be careful while walking from house to house trick-or-treating. 

If you choose to wait for Christmas, then have fun anticipating all the Christmas decorating, preparing the food, and giving the gifts.

Just what ever you do, be sure to have fun and give God the glory.

anticipation

"Looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them."

– anne of green gables

l.m. montgomery 

Are You a Christian Grinch or Do You Celebrate With Christmas Pigs?

In November of this year, the Preacher and I went to Lowe’s Hardware store to look for some items we needed for the house. We walked through their Christmas section where we discovered all kinds of lights, wreaths, trees, all the things you would normally see displayed at this time of year. But the one decoration that made me laugh was the blow-up Hawaiian snowman with a lei around his neck. I pointed the snowman out to the Preacher and we decided that if we were still living in Florida we would definitely have to have that in our yard. And then I began to think just how silly this sort of thing is, putting blow-up snowmen in your yard. The judgmental part of me was coming out.

At the beginning of December, I was driving out of our housing division, when I came across our neighbor’s Christmas-decorated yard. I looked at the two animal-like creatures and wondered to myself, “Are those pigs or dogs?” I wasn’t sure, but upon closer look they were pigs! I immediately thought that they were so silly. What do pigs have to do with Christmas!? I caught myself becoming a little judgmental again.

What I was really thinking was “Don’t these people know that Jesus is the reason for this holiday?” Then I suddenly realized I was being a Christian Grinch.

I began to look around our little town. I saw all the decorations that are placed in yards, in the front of businesses, in our public park, and I realized something – Me being judgmental, and maybe a little angry, doesn’t further His Kingdom at all!

I decided to take a fresh look at the Christmas season. We need to look at how Jesus is in this season, whether people know it or not.

Take a look around you. You can see Jesus every where in this season. Many think that the candy cane represents Jesus’ purity, His blood on the cross and the shape represents a Shepherd. Also, many believe that the cutting of the Christmas tree was a symbolism of His death and resurrection. Then there is Santa Claus, Old Saint Nick. Originally, he was a monk who sold everything he had and gave to the poor. He became known as the protector of children. Through this symbolism comes the tradition of giving presents to family and friends.

Why do we need to be irritated when someone says Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas? We usually don’t know that person well enough to judge them on the reason that they have chosen to not say Merry Christmas.

In our irritation over the world not recognizing that this is the season we celebrate Jesus’ birth, we are not showing Christian love. All we are showing is our piousness and legalism.

Celebrate this season. Celebrate it with His love. Celebrate the look on children’s faces when they see a lighted Christmas tree and a house all lit up with blow-up Santa’s and snowmen. Celebrate a child’s wonder when his mom or dad places him on the lap of a Santa Claus. Celebrate the light and the joy that the Christmas season brings to the cold winter days.

And don’t forget to celebrate the Christmas pigs!

Love and Merry Christmas from the Preacher and I

Small Town Christmas

Not a day goes by that I see an article in a Facebook feed or on the news, a story about how a school has announced that a Christmas tree will not be placed in their classrooms or a place of business is telling their employees that they must say 'Happy Holidays', not the salutation of "Have a Merry Christmas". They are even calling children's programs Holiday Programs instead of Christmas programs.

In this blog post I want to brag on our little community here in the high plains of Colorado. 

Every year the city puts out this nativity scene and, as you can see, a big 'Merry Christmas' greeting.

This year the City put lights all around the lake that is in the center of town, as well as some old Christmas decorations that they had used in years past. Among them is this nativity scene. So that makes two nativity scenes placed in the community by the City! 

(Sorry for the quality of the pictures)

Last Sunday night we had a Community Christmas Program that is hosted by various churches. Each church has a few people/groups that come and present a special song for the event. This year we had everything from a Trombone Quartet to a young girl singing 'Noel'. Each year the program is held at the High School Auditorium.

The schools are decorated with Christmas trees, you hear people greeting each other with Merry Christmas. In some of the schools the Christmas story is told in Christmas pageants. Our teachers and those in the administration attend churches and believe in the Christmas miracle of the Son of God being born to a virgin.

I want to thank our community, our small town, for remembering and celebrating the birth of our Savior. We may not have big department stores, franchised restaurants or malls but what we do have is a town who comes together when times get tough. We have Faith and we Believe in more than a Santa Claus and good cheer. We believe that Jesus Christ was born to save the world!

MERRY CHRISTMAS from the Preacher and I