Making this a Christmas to Remember

It is certainly beginning to look a lot like Christmas and that is fortunate because it is just around the corner. At this time of the year, I spend a considerable amount of time thinking about the Christmas story. Perhaps because I am a mother and was once a young woman, I feel a special kinship to Mary at this time of the year. I can only imagine the shear terror that she must have felt, knowing the responsibility that was placed upon her. She handled herself with grace and with the help of grace, with acceptance of this new role in her life and with knowledge of what that role could cost her.

It has only been in the last few years, as I have watched my own husband and son together, that I have considered just what kind of man Joseph must have been. Fathers are important and sometimes we forget just how much they impact the lives of their children, for better or worse. Here was a man that had every right to run for the hills and yet he didn’t. To raise the Son of God must have been a wonderful burden and only a man of character, strength and faith could have risen to the challenge.

As usual, God chose well. Not everyone is cut out to be Mary or Joseph. But, everyone does have something to give. In this, the season of giving, would it not be fitting for every man, woman and child to look inside and see just what he or she can give to this world? While I commend the Pay it Forward movement, the concept of gratitude and generosity should not require a movement, it should be a way of life. We all serve something or someone-be it money, fame, power, an employer. Perhaps we should make it our birthday gift to Jesus that we follow where He has lead and serve mankind.

I am not so naive that I believe that all the ills of the world will be cured with a mindset and spirit of generosity. And generosity of spirit has very little to do with money. Writing a check is easy, giving something more, something deeper is the hard part. No, the world will not change in a day. But, it will never change unless someone takes the first step. And He did. They did. We could and should follow the path that has been cleared for us with graciousness and generosity of spirit of those that had everything to lose but still dedicated their lives to something bigger than themselves. It doesn’t take a host of angels or a manger filled with hay, it simply requires faith and belief that the world can be a better place and the courage to walk a path that is far less traveled than it should be.

From the Jefferson County Post Family-Merry Christmas and May God Bless You and Yours!