Sunday, November 16, 2008

.. 'Tis the Season ..


Cory and I both know that it's so easy to get caught up in the commercialism of Christmas. I'll admit that I've been guilty of some serious wasteful spending in my past. Buying just to buy. So many 'things' seem great for a week or two... but are quickly forgotten about. The past few years we've talked more and more about what we want Christmas to look like within our own family. We really want our children to understand fully what it means to live life according to Christ's example.

This is where advent conspiracy comes in...

What if believers began to restore the scandal of Christmas by worshipping Jesus through compassion, not consumption. We want to make this year, and the many years to come something special for our family and others by showing God's love in a practical, meaningful way. As followers of Christ, we are called to love. Let's celebrate His birth by living our lives according to His perfect example so beautifully shown in Scripture.

3 comments:

Mommy3 said...

Great reminder of the season. We too struggle with how to handle Christmas and keep Christ at the center. We do not do Santa and we have a birthday party for Jesus, but we still have presents and lots of running around to do. What is your family doing?
This year we have decided to not do presents and are going with my husbands family to Florida and taking the kids to Disney. (wow, still really a lot of money!)
Thanks for the thought-provoking video and message.
~Heather Thomas (from iampregnant, mom of 4)

Shannon said...

Thanks for commenting, Heather! What great memories you'll make with your family in Disney... sounds like a blast! =)

Cory and I are passing up gifts for each other, and instead 'adopting' a few local children from our own community and blessing them with a few goodies. Last year we took part in Samaritans Purse (www.samaritanspurse.org)... a GREAT organization that gives shoeboxes full of this and that (crayons, coloring books, stickers, small toys, toothbrushes, ect.) to orphans around the world. My sister worked with them in Botswana, Africa and said it was absolutely AMAZING to see the joy these kids got out of a few small gifts.

As our kids grow, we plan on showing them practical ways to love on others during the season. We do still plan on doing the more traditional things (ie: Santa, presents, Christmas tree...) But we really want the main focus to be on Christ and following His example of Loving on others.

Shelldell said...

I was visiting Nate & Lissa's blog that they haven't written in because they don't have a computer at the moment. I thought I would check out the churches. I love the video. Thanks for sharing.
Love, Lissa's parents