Yeah, I'm a scrooge!

I know most of you really enjoy this time of year... but I don't. I think the problem is watching TV. That's where you're just thrown up on with commercial after commercial of the "gimmies." I don't watch that much TV, but it's still just enough to where I just can't take it anymore. We need the "givies" not the "gimmies". It just feels good. Time after time I'll finally get something that "I've always wanted" just to feel blech a month or so later. It doesn't matter how much you have you always want more. The only place where joy is found is in being contented with what you've already been blessed with. I'm not forgetting that true joy comes from Jesus - that's a given. What I'm saying is that little nagging "if I only had that or this" thought is a joy stealer. Once you learn to ignore that and hear the voice of God that tells us to be thankful, then your joy cannot be stolen.

I heard on the radio that we need to change our thinking even when it comes to taxes. If you're being taxed then that means you have an income! WOW! What a change in thinking - a real CHANGE we could all use and benefit from! I've sort of adopted the same thinking around the house. One evening while doing the dishes I realized that my dirty dishes were a sign that I have been blessed with food. If you don't have food, you don't have dirty dishes. If you don't have a family, then you're house isn't a wreck. If you don't have dirty clothes, that means you don't have any. So the next time you pay taxes or see dirty dishes, a dirty house, dirty clothes... change your perception to see where they came from. They came because you have an income, food, a family, clothes, a house, etc. God is good! In ANY situation there is something to be thankful for.

If you want something for Christmas, start seeing what you've already been blessed with. Food, family, clothes, house... now, those are great Christmas gifts! Thank you Lord, for blessing me with dirty dishes, clothes, house etc! You are so good to me.

You're probably wondering what does "yeah, I'm a scrooge" have to do with this. I don't know. I guess that's my first thought when I think about Christmas. The crazy black-friday people, kids whining in ever store for everything they see, the stupid Christmas music that starts way too early, the ugly Christmas trees (the dumbest one being the upside down tree). I just don't get it. Nothing about today's Christmas says CHRIST to me anymore. Christ isn't giving someone a gift because a day on the calendar makes you gift a gift. Jesus is a year-round giver. Wouldn't a gift in the middle of March or August for no reason at all have more specialness? I am not going to send out Christmas cards anymore. They just get lost in cluttered mailboxes and kitchen counter tops. Instead, throughout the year I am going to get out my address book and just led CHRIST lead me to whom I should send a greeting. That would mean so much more, at least to me it would. How about you?

Back to my thoughts on Christmas traditions - I do have a tree up but I try to convey CHRIST in it as much as possible. I tell the kids that the tree represents the tree that Christ died on. I use red lights to represent his blood. I also use some white to represent the washing away of our sins; being made white as snow! And there is no santa to be found anywhere in my home. I will not let the Glory of God be given to another. CHRISTmas has nothing to do with santa. (lower case "s" used on purpose).

So, there's my little haphazard rant. It went all over the place but that's okay. Have a great day!