So, you’ve bought all of the presents (except for the ones that you still need to get). School term is ending. You have plans to travel the length of the country to view relatives, the obligatory bag of sprouts is in the larder and as you approach your few days of annual leave you have made it to the end of another year.
Some years are marked out clearly with events that burn into the depths of our souls, other years race by soon to be a distant memory. Things change rapidly, but we know that only one thing remains the same.
In all the business, with all the pressures that grow at this time of year and all the demands from extended family and those in your home I want to encourage you to make the most of what is left of this year.
1. Enjoy time with your children. This time is a magical time, and they won’t be young for long. Make the most of every moment – the early mornings, the tired cries, the sugar-induced moments of mania. Delight in your children while they are with you.
2. Fix your eyes on God … and keep them there. That’s easier said than done when you have more things to do than there is time to do it, but don’t let this be a season of backsliding for you.
3. Remember what life is about. It’s not about the material things we hold, but the God that we get to serve and the people we get to do life with (especially the people who live in a house with us). Our lives are to be lived for God’s glory, when we seek to do this everything else gets into the right perspective.
Take a moment at the start of each day in the run up to Christmas to pause and reflect on the King who came as a lamb so that we could be brought back to God.
Then take another moment at the end of each day to reflect on all you have done in the light of the fact that that same King is returning soon. He is coming back and he told us not to sleep but to keep watch.
1 Thessalonians 5:6, ‘Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.’
Keep alert to the spiritual realities that God has given us to enjoy and don’t simply drift through this season. In fact getting ready for His return is of far higher importance than preparing for Christmas.
Jesus came as a baby, like a lamb but He is returning as King over all. So, whether the turkey get burnt, your children squabble or you don’t manage to do all you have planned; let’s keep things in the right perspective. The King is returning soon and we should make ourselves ready.
Merry Christmas to you from all of us at Children Can.
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