My sister Kelsey said something in her most recent blog post about doing everythign special on Christmas.
I was thinking somethign similar. I think it is great that Christmas is so special, but maybe we should take away some of the "specialness" and make it a simple day of focusing on Jesus.
Either way, I think we should also work to make other days special. Why wait for one day to do the things we enjoy, to love the people we love, to eat the food we crave.
Well, "all things in moderation."
but the loving people part is definitely something I think everybody should do more of, and I certainly know that's true for me.
that kind of relates to my thoughts about gift giving. I think gift giving should be done throughout the year based upon actually realizing a need somebody has and giving to fulfill that need rather than at the end of every year buying random things because we feel like we should.
For example, I got socks for Christmas from my parents, and they're great. I need socks. I seem to wear through socks pretty quickly even though I dont wear them often. I enjoy the gifts I got. I didn't get a bunch of nonsense, but I got a few things that are meaningful to me.
If we really pay attention to the people in our lives, we would know what they want and need. If they aren't important enough for us to pay attention to, why would we spend money on something that they probably want to take back? If it truly is the thought that counts, maybe we should be more thoughtful.
All of this stuff definitely goes for me too and most of it is just whatever comes to mind as I am writing, but I think I need to pay more attention to the people I care about in my life. The hard part of this is deciding who to care about and reminding myself of those people, because there are so many people and i can't do something for everybody. anyway, maybe I need to come up with some kind of care system, but something that doesn't make in an obligation.
well, I guess I need to think more about this but right now I need to sleep.
Praise God and goodnight.
1 comment:
You read my mind! (Or maybe you just read that one line from my blog...) Either way, I was thinking pretty much the same thing as far as spreading out the specialness, focusing more on Jesus for Christmas (I mean, did anyone ask him what *he* wanted to eat for dinner or what kind of cake he wanted? Not only that, but who he would have invited for his party...), gift-giving when there's a need (or a want even) instead of just because there's some day that someone declared as "gift day", caring more about people enough to actually *know* what they want or need, needing socks... ok, I wasn't thinking about that last one.
Part of me wonders if it's all just me trying to have an excuse to not get people gifts on Christmas. But it turns out I enjoy giving gifts, but mostly when I know the gift has some meaning. I was thinking back to favorite gifts given and received, and well, my memory's really bad, but one of my favorite gifts given was given randomly & secretly after hearing about someone wanting something, not because it was a special day. And one of my favorite gifts received (this is definitely not the only favorite, but it helps my point) was that orange belt that Carrie gave me, not because it was my birthday or Christmas or anything, but because it was orange and made her think about me. And how much did the belt cost her? Well, pretty much nothing because it came with a pair of shorts she bought.
Anyway, this is a really long comment. Maybe I'll have to go into more thought detail on my own blog.
Happy yuletide (or is it just yule?)!
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