Sunday thoughts . . .

This year I am going to try to honor Christmas and the true meaning of it every day of December.   I was shocked at the recent photos and film of the so called "Black Friday" events here in the UK.  It isn't something that we have ever really done over here that I had noticed, but this year it was pretty difficult not to.  People were behaving horribly all over the UK, so much so that in some of the shops they had to call in the police.   Black Friday . . .  I do not believe it brings out the best in people and it is not what I want my Christmas to be about.  It smacks of commercialism in the worse way.   My Christmas is not going to be a commercial one.

So to that end . . .

 

We have this little book about anticipating all of Jesus in the Advent.  It's like a daybook and it covers every day from the first of December to the twenty fifth and we will be studying it together as a family and truly bringing Christ into our Christmas.  After all HE is the reason for the season!




I will remember each day that HE was, is and always will be the most important gift of the holiday season.



We were challenged by the Missionary Sisters to keep a gratitude journal throughout December and try to find five things each day to be grateful for, and then to thank our Heavenly Father at the end of our days for them one by one.   I will be doing that.   Mind you, I find things to be grateful for each day anyways.   I just don't always remember to thank God for them.   I will be changing that.   I can think of one thing right now.  I am thankful that I do not have a red nose and I am thankful for a childhood that included Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!  I never hear the song but what I am a child again.



As the days grow shorter and colder I will remember all of God's creatures in my actions and prayers.   We do feed the birds and that is a good thing, especially in the Winter months.  I will not grumble when I see flocks of starlings descend upon our feeders emptying them in very short order.  They are God's creatures too.   I will try to do at least one kind thing for another when I am out and about each day.   Perhaps it will be something as simple as letting someone go before me in the line at the supermarket, or calling up a friend to ask them if they need anything before I go to the supermarket.   It is the gift of giving and it doesn't have to be tied up with ribbons or bows . . .  but with heart strings and sincerity and love.



I will remind myself each day that I am very lucky to be living in a country where I have the freedom to do these things without fear of reprisal or condemnation.  Where I am free to have views and opinions and the priviledge of worshiping as and when and how ever I want to.   I have been so blessed to have been the recipient of a free education . . .  so many have not.   I have been blessed to have never truly known hunger or any of the other challenges that people in third world nations have to deal with every day of their lives.   To have been born at a time when I have been able to live my life in relative safey and security . . .  and luxury.  Even the poorest of us living in these Western nations do not truly know real poverty.

 

There is none so poor as those who are poor in spirit.  That is true poverty.  I will be grateful every day that I am not poor in spirit.  This is a gift.  To be strong and wealthy in spirit.  To be able to count your blessings . . .  even in the things which don't always immediately seem like blessings.  There . . .  but for the grace of God go I.   I will not judge another man without having walked first in their shoes.  Nobody knows the heart of another  Only God knows these things and it is only my place to reach out and to help and to love . . . unconditionally.

If I can master this.   I will have received the greatest gift of all.  I am truly a work in progress. ☺

There will also be plenty of cakes and cookies and chocolates, Christmas movies and Christmas Carols, Ho Ho Ho's and Fa La La's . . . .  coz that's how this gal rolls.

A thought to carry with you through today  . . .

❥✻❥.¸¸.✿¨¯`❥✻❥¸¸.✿¨¯`❥✻❥.¸¸.✿¨¯`❥✻❥
I believe in Christianity 
as I believe that the sun has risen: 
not only because I see it, 
but because by it 
I see everything else. 
~C. S. Lewis༺❀༻༺❀༻
 ❥✻❥.¸¸.✿¨¯`❥✻❥¸¸.✿¨¯`❥✻❥.¸¸.✿¨¯`❥✻❥  


 

Cooking in The English Kitchen today  . . . . Pot Roasted Chicken with Raspberry Cider.

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Have a wonderful Sunday!