Two Ways to Embrace This Christmas Season

It is that time of year when people start to put away colors of orange, brown, and yellow and start to decorate with red and green. Christmas trees go up and extra string lights are hung (well, maybe I am just behind schedule because I have seen Christmas trees for the past month!). It seems like a huge jump from Thanksgiving to Christmas; how do you make the transition? Here are a couple ways to embrace the Christmas season.

Keep Christ the Center

One of my favorite Christmas songs is “This is Christmas” by Kutless. The chorus is:

“What is Christmas

If there never was a Savior wrapped in a manger

What is Christmas without Christ”

Kutless, This is Christmas

These lyrics ring so true. Without the birth of Christ, Christmas would not have a definition. Our lives would be without meaning. As Christians, He is who our life is based upon. Every breath is an echo of His grace toward us.

Keeping Christ the center begins with the recognition that we are living for Him. This season is a special reminder of the gift we have been given. But it easily becomes a distraction. We get caught up in the celebration that we lose sight of Who we are celebrating.

Let this season be a time of joyful remembrance of God’s love for us. Christmas is the perfect time to refocus our lives on the One who came to earth to save us.

Remember Your Blessings

Just as Christmas is a time to remember Jesus’ birth, Thanksgiving is a time to remember our blessings; but we have these reminders so that we can keep them in focus throughout the year. Even though Thanksgiving leftovers are dwindling and family is traveling back home, we do not have to lose our heart of thankfulness.

I believe the easiest way to fall into discontentment is to lose sight of our ultimate blessings. These are the blessings we have in Christ. They surpass anything this world can offer. The list of our blessings is too immense to fill mere pages but we can think of God’s grace, mercy, love, faithfulness, and goodness.

When we keep these blessings in focus then anything this world can offer will shrink in comparison. Our spiritual blessings comprise our ultimate thankfulness list; one that will last.

* For the next several weeks I have some exciting Christmas themed posts planned. I will continue with my monthly highlights in January (it is hard to believe it will be January!).