Keeping Christmas from Becoming ChristMESS (Pt. 4)

I am presenting 4 main points under the topic of "Keeping Christmas from Becoming ChristMESS". These steps will help you keep your sanity and focus during what is sometimes the most stressful time of the year.

Take the time to read the first three if you have not done so already, then look at the final point which is posted below:

IV. REJOICE IN YOUR BLESSINGS
Philip. 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

It seems strange that a man in prison would be telling a church to rejoice. But Paul’s attitude teaches us an important lesson: our inner attitudes do not have to reflect our outward circumstances. Paul was full of joy because he knew that no matter what happened to him, Jesus Christ was with him.

Someone rightly said that “Your attitude determines your altitude” –

There are a host of things we could put down here as being able to rejoice, especially for our salvation, but another obvious thing we can be thankful and rejoice about is:

A. The Blessing of Family

Statistic: Sources of Pleasure
What do people consider the greatest source of pleasure in their lives?
According to a 1989 study conducted for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Corporation, the overwhelming answer is “family,” selected by 63 percent of respondents.

Trailing far behind, receiving only a tenth of that response, were religious involvement (8 percent), work (6 percent), and friends (6 percent). Comments Dr. Lee Salk, clinical professor of psychology at Cornell, who interpreted the data: “Most Americans think of their families as the most important things in their lives.”
—Reported in USA Today, 10/10/89. “To Verify,” Leadership.

B. The Blessing of Provision

A person who is not grateful for what they have will never truly be grateful for what they may get. It might last for awhile, but we must realize that contentment comes from what we have on the inside, not what we might gain on the outside.

Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.
—Benjamin Franklin

Here’s a scripture on being content that perhaps you may have not heard:
Eccles. 4:6 Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.

Sometimes, we can get just a bit too caught up in the latest and greatest, and getting ahead, and we might just want to step back at times and say “why”?

The Attorney and the Fisherman

A hard-driving corporate attorney saw a fisherman he knew from church one afternoon, legs dangling off the pier as he helped his two young sons catch crabs. “Why aren’t you out there fishing?” he asked.
“Because I’ve caught enough fish for today.”
“Why don’t you catch more fish than you need?”
“What would I do with them?” asked the fisherman.
“You could earn more money and buy a better boat so you could go deeper and catch more fish. Then you could buy a fleet of boats. Soon you’d be rich like me.”
“What would I do then?”
“You could sit down and enjoy life.”
“What do you think I’m doing now?”
—Ray Pritchard, quoted in Men of Integrity, Vol. 3, no. 5.

An Amazing Phone Call

This is one of the most amazing and insightful phone calls you will ever hear about the greatness of God, and the compassion He offers to all who will simply believe in His wisdom and ways. What a tremendous reminder at Christmas of the great sacrifice of the Father by sending His Son Jesus, and the sacrifice of Jesus that He came.

Share it with your friends and family:
http://e-inspirational.blogspot.com/2007/12/amazing-phone-call.html

Share it with your friends and family:
http://e-inspirational.blogspot.com/2007/12/amazing-phone-call.html

Keeping Christmas from Becoming ChristMESS (Pt. 3)

I am presenting 4 main points under the topic of "Keeping Christmas from Becoming ChristMESS". These steps will help you keep your sanity and focus during what is sometimes the most stressful time of the year.

Take the time to read the first two if you have not done so already, then look at today's which is posted below:

III. Reject The Pressure

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

It seems like every year there is a new “gotta have” toy for the children. I remember the crazes of the Cabbage Patch Dolls, and the Beanie Babies, and while I haven’t kept up with the latest and greatest, I’m sure there are toys like that this year where every child in America seems to feel like they just “need it”!

A. Pressure To Compete

The competition starts the day after Thanksgiving with Black Friday as stores begin to have the sales that will help to get them in the black for the year as they advertise that they are going to have 20 of a certain item, and if you don’t get there at 4:00 AM in the morning, your life will not be complete because you will miss out. I’m sorry, but it’s going to take a lot more than what they’re offering to get me out of bed that early in the morning to stand out in the cold to compete with someone else for something. Maybe I’ll do it someday, I don’t know, but for now, they haven’t actually offered to pay me.

Well, I made up my mind a number of years ago, that I wasn’t going to worry about keeping up with the Jones’s, because I heard it through the grapevine that for the most part, the Jones’s are broke!
They may look real nice with all of the latest in gadgets and goodies, but like the commercial says, “they’re in debt up to their eyeballs”.

B. Pressure To Control

As you are out and about during the Christmas Season, realize that there are a lot of people out there who simply want to be “in control”, and I believe that if we are going to keep Christmas from becoming a MESS, then we need to back off a bit, and be the witness in our actions God wants us to be.

I don’t know if you notice it, but if there is ever a time of the year that aggressiveness peaks, it is during this time. Traffic is snarled while faces are snarling.

Even in the midst of all the turmoil that we face, we can still have the peace of God that passes all understanding, and maintain our witness to be a servant even in an environment where everyone wants to be the “ruler”.

Be sure to log on to this blog to get the final way to "Keep Christmas From Becoming A Mess".