</p>Image via WikipediaPosted in The Simple Life
The holiday season can be a time to draw closer to faith, family and friends and feed your inner spirit-in formal worship and devotions, but also in the midst of everyday life. You never know when a sudden blessing can shower you with joy. You can be out shopping, and the words of a recorded carol will suddenly bound, newly meaningful, into your mind. Perhaps you’ll see a mother with children who remind you of your brothers and sisters at the same age.
During the holidays, it seems easier to reach across the years. To forgive. To ask forgiveness. To open heart and pocketbook to the needy. Such are the season’s true gifts of the spirit.
- Remember those in need. Begin the season by buying a gift for a needy person whose name was plucked from The Salvation Army Christmas tree at a local mall. Get your children to select gifts and include notes with them.
- Experience different customs. Members of Nativity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis have collected more than 100 creches and paintings of the Nativity from around the world.
- Put a creche in your home. You can buy inexpensive, unbreakable wooden or molded rubber sets that are just right for families with young children. Start the Wise Men on their journey to the creche beginning in a child’s bedroom and move a little closer to the manger each day. Or, buy one creche piece every year and write the date on the bottom.
- Use your talents. Reserve time for your favorite cooking or crafts projects. Make your own Christmas cards; bake for friends, family and neighbours; play the piano for a carol sing at a seniors home.
- See beauty in traditions. Every year we put a ragged angel on the top of the family Christmas tree -and every year it looks a bit more tattered. One of the girls has it now. It says family to us.
- Give year-round. Reaching out to those in need makes the holidays precious to many of us. But charities, especially those that serve meals to the homeless, often report they have too many volunteers during the holidays, and too few at other times. Make a pledge to pitch in during another month of the year, put the date on your calendar and tell the charity to expect you.
- Shop for those who can’t. Ask friends or co-workers to bring a gift or a baby or young child-toys, diapers, formula, etc. to a party. Take the gifts to the women’s shelter so mothers will have something to give babies during the holiday season.
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