What We Want You to Know: Christmas

By: Courtney and Khylee

As Christmas time approaches our minds are full of grocery lists, last minute gifts, and travel plans. Ten trips to Wal-Mart THIS week (We wish we were kidding!). We both feel like we have been going non-stop trying to wrap up all the odds and ends and prepare for family Christmases. While editing photos today I (Courtney) listened to some sermons online and WOW did the Lord speak to me. WHAT are we bustling around with all this busy body work for? We fill our lives full of meaningless activities, stuff and outside pressures to the point of busting at the seams. Yet, somehow instead of expectantly waiting and anticipating the birth of our Savior, we end up missing Him altogether.

“Whenever Christmas begins to burden, it’s a sign that I’ve taken on something of the
world and not of Christ.”- Anne Voskamp

Like most families that are thinking about how they want to raise their children, the subject of Christmas is something that we have REALLY begun to talk about this holiday season.  Both of our families want to start meaningful traditions that point only to Christ, not our own selfish desires. We want to teach our children the story of Christ during this season, the story of how God began the process of adopting us as HIS children, the story of the fall of humanity, our need for a Savior, and his merciful redemption.

“Maybe that’s always the only choice we have to make every Christmas: feed our own fickle wishes or feed the real hunger of Christ?”- Anne Voskamp

We want to teach our children during this season how to be the hands and feet of Christ, how to love “the least of these” as we are commanded in Matthew 25.  For us, it only makes sense to celebrate this time asking Jesus what we can give him for his birthday.  So, we are starting new traditions this year with both of our families that don’t involve a man in a red suit but rather point us into marveling and worshipping our Savior.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

I (Courtney) heard a sermon that said - "You may know the Christmas story and not know the Savior.”  In this busy season what is on your heart? Buying another gift? Stress? Disappointment? Unfulfillment with all the stuff, but not knowing why? Or truly celebrating the birth of the Savior of the world.  If you do not know Jesus Christ and do not have a personal relationship with Him, you can. Embrace the unexplainable hope that only comes from Him.  That is the reason he came from heaven, was for you and me.

So we encourage you to see Christmas with new eyes. Go to your local youth shelter and donate your time or money. Give to a family that might not be getting any presents this year. Pay someone's gas bill. Pay for the person behind you in line for the drive-thru. Take a cause on as a family. There are a MILLION ways you can make a difference in someone’s life and in return you will find more fulfillment than any present can give you because “When we give to Christ in the hungry, He satisfies our own hunger pangs” Anne Voskamp!

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Don't miss it

By: Khylee 

 

January of this year was a big month in my life. I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back I see it was a time of learning, growth, and challenge.

To say that I am obsessed with reading other people’s blogs would be an understatement- fashion , home improvement and, food blogs…I had to get google reader just to keep up with them all.  In January, I stumbled upon ADOPTION blogs and I was like kid in a candy store.  I saw families that looked like the family I had always envisioned (one with multiple different skin tones, hair textures, and eye shapes) with parents that looked completely different. Rusty, the pastor at my church, brought up James 1:27 one Sunday that month and for the FIRST time I saw in the bible “Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans.”  I had grown up in church my entire life and missed this verse!  How could have I missed this verse?  There it was, not only was my heart crying, ADOPT, but now I was reading God’s word and it was saying just that.

Later that same day I found a new adoption blog (Waiting on a Word) and the scripture at the top was Isaiah 1:17 “…take up the cause of the fatherless”.   There it was again, in the scripture, the call to take care of the orphan.  I excitedly showed Adam these verses…and he looked at me like I was crazy woman.  “Did you know these were in there”… I said. ” “Well, yeah, didn’t you?”  “No, I had no idea the word specifically said that we are to take care of the orphan.”  HOW COULD I HAVE MISSED IT?

That is one my fears that the adoption process has made me stop and begin to recognize in my life…that I will somehow miss it.  That I will get so wrapped up in myself, my desires, my middle-class privileged life style, my possessions, my religion, my traditions, on being comfortable---that I will miss out on hurting people, that I will miss out on something better than “stuff”, that I will miss out on watching God perform miracles, that I will miss out on getting to be a part of something bigger, that I will miss the life-changing power of the gospel.

But isn’t that what the enemy wants? In John 10:10 it says he has come “only to steal, kill and destroy.”  And so he goes about making sure that children in our state, our country, around the world don’t have a family that can bring about love, healing, safety and protection, that children are trafficked and forced to become labor or sex slaves, that some children in foster care are prescribed 10+ medications because “they are acting out” [goodness, if anyone of us had been ripped out of our home and everything we knew we might just have a few behavior problems ourselves. 20/20 aired a special on this very issue: click here for the video], and the list goes on, and on.   He goes about causing Christian people who have the ability to care for the orphan to stay so wrapped up in their life, to become apathetic to the meaning of the word orphan, to become comfortable with the status quo, to make excuse after excuse and believe lie after lie that.we.miss.it. 

So this Christmas season, lets remember the birth of Jesus- our savior who makes us right again before God, who made it so that WE can be adopted into the family of God, who came so that we can have life---LET US NOT MISS IT.   

(For a challenging and inspiring read on how to make Christmas more meaningful and Christ-Focused read this blog post from Jen Hatmaker entitled “The Christmas Conundrum”)

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