Keeping it Real

Keeping it Real was the 'theme' of the Christmas Eve service today. Fitting.

As I mentioned in my last post, we are celebrating Christmas differently this year. I pray VERY often about the situation that we are currently in right now and as I was doing just that this morning, a 'new' revelation came into my heart. In the recent years, we had it ALL wrong.

Christmas is about our Savior coming to save us all. NOT Christmas presents. The focus should be on HIM. It wasn't. While giving gifts isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is when THAT becomes the focus of Christmas. I replayed how buying gifts and spending time with family became a stress for people. Would the kids fight, break something, be to loud? Walking on eggshells. No talk of Him. The Reason.

I thoroughly enjoy Christmas Eve service. One of my favorites. Last year.....we didn't even make it to church. Now, there was terrible weather and there was a lot of stress that day. However, we were going in that direction anyway and we knew the bad weather was coming and could have gotten ready sooner, but we didn't. Ouch.

I prayed and reflected on those memories and couldn't help but wonder if it was better for us to separate from the 'usual' so that our family could come back to the Lord. REALLY make Him our priority, just as we had prayed for.

Today, a normally hectic and crazy day, has been very relaxing and we've experienced way less stress. Elmbrook has many Christmas Eve services, so we started to get ready and decided to go to the 1:00 service, then afterwards, Emily (and now Michael the sleepwalker) could nap before heading to my parents for the evening. We were only a couple minutes late to church and even though there were quite a bit of people, we were able to sit in our 'normal' section, which was nice.

The message was about Christmas and Jesus. Normal for Christmas, right? However, our pastor asked if we were celebrating the Real thing this Christmas or the 'plastic' version. I immediately thought of my morning prayer time and realized, the past few years, our Christmas had become plastic. I was flooded with thankfulness. Thankful that the Lord had opened my eyes and revealed to me that we were on the wrong track. He also showed me through Pastor Philip, that we were still valued and God still 'wanted' us. So, instead of feeling guilty, I felt renewed and thankful.

Tomorrow morning, in addition to reading about Jesus' birth with our family, we will also talk about keeping God as our focus. That He is the Real Reason for Christmas and we are extremely blessed!

Merry Christmas, everyone! May you too celebrate the Real and not the 'plastic'.

Luke 2:9-14

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."  Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,  "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."