This blog was first posted on December 8, 2017. Over the next 5 weeks as the holidays and my life transitions, I will be sharing some of my favorite Christmas time post. I hope you will enjoy these past post over the holiday and the new year – 2019 will bring a new life and new post of God’s Blessings. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Christmas Season
Christmas music is playing now everywhere I go and the lights are shining bright. The season is here. I want to enjoy more and stress less as Christmas day approaches. I want to remember why we celebrate this season. I always find myself this time of year thinking about the past. Thinking about Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my girls. The fun, the laughs, the surprises, and most importantly the family traditions we have created together and continue to create over the years. I believe that traditions are important for families and can be past down to the next generation. Paul reminds me of the importance of traditions in 2 Thessalonians 2:15, “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.”
Family Traditions
My family has a few old traditions like the mouse calendar countdown to Christmas. Our girls would almost fight to get to move the mouse each day. They loved for the one whose turn it was to forget, so later in the day the mouse would secretly be moved. This simple purchase so many years ago has brought so much joy to our family. Even now my husband takes pictures of Harley moving the mouse and sends it our now grown daughters. It is a special memory and tradition in our home, and one I hope continues in the homes of our daughters one day with their children.
Jesus Birthday Cake
Another great tradition for our family is baking Jesus’s Birthday Cake and singing Happy Birthday to him on Christmas Day. Today my girls bake the cake and decorate the cake together instead of me, but I enjoy watching them back home together in the kitchen having fun carrying on our family tradtion. We still gather round the cake on Christmas afternoon and sing and eat his birthday cake! This is definitely one of my favorite Christmas memories and traditions! “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7
Even the Cake Decorations are important to our family.
Sharing Traditions
As an educator, I could not help but wonder about the traditions of my students, so I asked them to share favorite Christmas traditions with me on a Chalkboard in the school library. It is special to hear them talk about the little things their families do together that are important to them. Here are a few from this years board:
Enchiladas for Breakfast on Christmas morning. Why? Her family is from Guatemala and this is just something her grandmother has always done.
Crab Legs for Christmas Eve. This student was super excited to share how much the night means getting to eat the crab legs!
Lights. One student just shared how much she enjoys lights and lots of lights. She and I have that in common.
These are just a few shared on the board and in discussions with my students.
Over the years I have heard some wonderful traditions that families share. Some I wish I had even thought of. Some that brought a great laugh but was still so important to the student.
One tradition that I wish I had known and started is only receiving three gifts for Christmas. “And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” Matthew 2:11
Several years ago a student shared that on Christmas Eve they had to eat their meal with a different utensil from the kitchen. This was a long family tradition and brought lots of laughter around the table. Who knew what you would get? How do you eat with a whisk?
The Gift of Jesus
Traditions are important in families and even school communities. God shows us how to celebrate him Everywhere. This is a like a tradition. Praise the Lord in all that we do as Psalm 150:1-6 exclaims, “Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!…”
During this Christmas season with traditions being shared and even created remembering the reason we have this season is the most important. God loved us so much that he gave us the greatest gift of all. He gave us His Son. He gave us Life. ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.
Closing Verse: “Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.” 1 Corinthians 11:2
Challenge: During this Christmas Season full of traditions don’t forget God’s traditions and gifts in your life.
This blog was first posted on December 1, 2017. Over the next 6 weeks as the holidays and my life transitions, I will be sharing some of my favorite Christmas time post. I hope you will enjoy these past post over the holiday and the new year – 2019 will bring a new life and new post of God’s Blessings. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
The tree is up and the lights are beginning to glisten and shine on homes around the neighborhood. Homes and business are beginning to show signs of Christmas with lights abundantly shining. There have been times in my past where this time of year would bring anxiety to my life, as my to do list just seemed to grow and I had no idea what to buy or give as gifts. A few weeks ago when God first touched me with the song “Trust in You” by Lauren Daigle, I was sitting at a stop light and reading a church sign on the corner. It seems funny to me that I can’t remember what the sign said because I love church signs, but only the feeling that this would be a season of enjoying and not worrying. Maybe it was the darkness full of lights around me as I was driving, that made me think of Christmas and the coming season of lights, but I felt an excitement for the coming Christmas season and the light of Christ that we celebrate this time of year. I am going to make the lights important this year. I stop and enjoy each new one home that lights up. I become mesmerized in the beauty of the lights which are reminding me this year of Jesus and his words in John 14:6, “‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
The Star
I love the Moravian star. If I had one I would probably leave it up year round, so this time of year I get to see the star again. Have you stopped to really look at one and see all the crosses that come together to create this star? I imagine this is the unusual star in the heavens above the manager. Matthew 2: 9-10 shares the joy of the wise men when they found Jesus, “After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” As I enjoy the stars of Christmas, I realize that the stars we admire in the heavens are created by God. Psalms 147:4 reads, “He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.” Each star including the one that rose over Jesus’s birth is named by God, the Creator.
Christmas Season
Let’s all slow down this Christmas season and enjoy the lights of Christmas, find God’s peace, and His blessings in the lights. Let go of the chaos this time of year can bring and stop and enjoy what is important. Stop and remember that God brought his only Son as a baby to walk in our footsteps without sin. Jesus knows us and understands our walk. Stop and walk with him through this season. I know peace will be found if stop and will be infinitely better than the hustle and bustle. For as John 1:5 reminds us all, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Closing Verse:Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Challenge: Stop and Walk with Jesus through the Christmas Season.
Allie's Way 