When preaching to our church family, I have stated on several occasions that I believe we, as believers have placed ourselves at a disadvantage by not using our celebrations to focus on Christ enough. In the Old Testament there were all kinds of celebrations set up which caused their children to ask questions the meaning of the celebration…this gave Dad and Mom and opportunity to point to Christ during fun events. After all, we know that children love to celebrate! In fact, there is no celebration that children love any more than Christmas! As Christian parents our desire is to use each moment in our children’s lives to point to Christ, and while Christmas seems like an easy time to do this the truth is, we fall into the commercialism of the culture much the same way the world does. So, at the beginning of December I want to offer some very practical ways we can have more of a focus on Christ this year:
- If you are a member of Trinity, begin now talking about our Happy Birthday Jesus service. This is where we give an additional offering to the Bride in celebration of our Savior’s birth. We do not do this as an ordinary offering, but we put this gift in an envelope or card. In the past we have talked to our boys about how much we are giving as a family and when they were smaller they made a card that we could place at the altar during this service. As a church family we have a birthday cake and celebrate the birth of our Savior.
- Create ornaments with the names of Christ on them to hang on the tree. Take some time in your family worship to discuss what these names mean.
- Invite a widow to have Christmas dinner with your family.
- Minister to a family who has specific needs.
- If you are in the Memphis area, visit St. Jude’s Hospital and take something small to the families who are going to have be there during Christmas.
- Get involved with Operation Christmas Child as a family. We always participate in this church wide.
- Make something for your neighbors…especially those whom you have been trying to reach for Christ.
If you do something as a family tradition or have any other ideas, tell us about them!
