A long post on my Christmas Thoughts - if you were hoping to read another cute story about the kids SKIP this post!!

What's Christmas all about anyways?? Shopping, baking, wrapping gifts, mailing cards, decorating your house??? This Christmas my minds been full of thoughts about how we are supposed to be celebrating Christmas. I love the season and I don't think we are supposed to skip over all the normal things we do to celebrate. Many of the things we do have a meaning behind them that can relate back to the real purpose of Christmas but do we recognize them as that or do we just fill our lists with things to do? Anyways, I've been reading Rick Warren's new book, The Purpose of Christmas and it's a great read!! I picked it up at Walmart for $12. Mine should be up for borrowing by the end of the week! It's a great snapshot on the REAL reason Christ came to the earth. It makes me want to celebrate MORE, just maybe in a DIFFERENT way!

Christmas is a time for CELEBRATION!
Christmas is a time for SALVATION!

Christmas is a time for RECONCILIATION!

There are two things that keep coming to my mind this Christmas that I have either heard or read. Here they are . . . beware they may cause you to ponder . . .

Americans spend 450 BILLION dollars a year on Christmas and the estimated cost to make clean water available is 10 BILLION dollars.

Francis Chan (Christian pastor and author) said this in one of his messages . He was sitting on the beach talking to God and asked him "What is the purpose of my life?" and though he didn't hear a voice, he believed God was saying to him . . .

"While you are sitting on the beach with your little blanket and coffee . . . meanwhile there are millions of people who are suffering right now wondering if they are even going to live through the day. So as you sit there on the nice little seashore wondering what the purpose of your life is there are people just wondering if they are going to live through this day? There are mothers holding their babies who are going man I can not find food anywhere, is my baby even going to live through the day? What do you think my will is for your life? What do you think the purpose would be? Everything you know about me, Almighty God, everything you've learned in the scriptures about me . . . What do I care about?"

I warned you this wasn't a light post!! I posted two videos on the side of my blog that talk about the water issue. One is Advent Conspiracy and their goal is for us to spend less at Christmas and to give that money to someone in need. The other video is Charity: water. (The Advent Conspiracy video is rather large, I'm still trying to figure out another way to post it.)

Every year we cut down on our Christmas cost for financial reasons and we always participate in some local activities that assist people in need. We involve the kids in giving to people in need through one of several organizations but I feel we need to do more. As I've wrestled with some of this in my mind I've decided we just need to ask ourselves WHAT IS THE NEXT STEP FOR OUR FAMILY?? How can we give MORE this season to others in REAL need?

I invite you to all ask yourself the same question or to read the "Purpose of Christmas" book along with me! Merry Christmas - may the season be full of meaning for you and your family.