New Year is coming up and with it comes the feeling to set goals to do try harder and do new things during the upcoming year.
Someone once said that if you don't write down a goal then it's only a wish. I think that's true in the way that if you write something down and put it where you see it often, you tend to do more about that goal.
Once you've written it, put it up where you can see it often and then work toward that goal.
I enjoy playing soccer, or football, and, as all sports, soccer requires teamwork. You can't expect to score a goal all by yourself. You have other players all over the field helpping you.
In the same way, a goal can be better achieved when you tell your friends and family about them. That way they know and can support you and give encouragement if needed.
Motivation also helps.
A couple years ago I wanted to buy a LEGO architecture set of Falling Water. My motivation was the joy and fun of building it once I got it.
So, once I knew what it was I wanted, I started saving money. It took time, pateicnt and effort but I did it and I felt amazing.
I'm sure you've felt this way before, you studied hard for a test and thanks to all that work and the time you spent, you passed.
Fulfilling a goal feels...amazing. You realize what you can do.
Challenge: make a goal, even if it seems kind of small, and do it.
Challenge #2(Two challenges I know!): make a long term goal. Do you want to go to college?
Have a wonderful New Year's Day and a great year!!
Winter is a great time to serve. Especially during Christmas season.
Now, I know Christmas has rolled by (barely) but now you have a whole year to think about what service you want to give next Christmas.
A friend on Facebook shared this video a while ago; it's...spectacular. There's not really a word to describe it correctly. It's just amazing.
So, no, you don't have to go around handing money out to people to do service. In fact, I'll bet that you serve people left and right everyday without realizing it.
There's two kinds of service. Big in-the-news type service and small day to day type service. Both are important. (Although the day to day type services are, for the lack of a better word, better, I think.)
-Challenge: Do an act of service, big or small, today-
On this, the eve of the day we celebrate Christ's birth, I though it'd be appropriate to write about Him. Because, of course, He's what it's all about.
Jesus Christ, Savior of the world, was born in a manger in Bethleham to Mary and Joseph.
That year everyone was ordered to return to the city of their roots, so to speak. Joseph and Mary traveled to from Nazareth to Bethlehem, a journey of around 62 miles. That by itself is a pretty big hike, not to mention Mary was pregnant. Now a days, doctors tell women who are expecting not to exert themselves.
Things were differently different back then.
Once there, Joseph could not find an inn for him and Mary to stay at. And Mary was just about ready to have her baby. No pressure!!
Thank goodness that they were able to stay in a stable. Back then a stable wasn't what we think of. It was most likely a cave where the animals stayed.
And so, in the lowliness (and no doubt smelliness), of that stable, Jesus Christ, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Prince of Peace and Messiah, among other titles, was born. He was not born in a palace or even an inn. No, He was born in a humble stable with the animals.
Shepherds in a nearby field were visited by angels and told to go to Bethlehem to see the Christ child. The shepherds obeyed and once they had seen the child, they went around and told everyone else of what they'd seen.
Now the significance of the shepherds being visited by the angels is this: they tended to the sacrificial lambs, the lambs that would be used as sacrifices in the temple.
Christ is the reason for Christmas. You've probably heard this a thousand times but, if you take off the second syllable of Christmas you get Christ. Do the same thing for 'The Spirit of Christmas.' Take the second syllable of Christmas and you have, 'The Spirit of Christ.'
It's very appropriate to have a holiday for Christ. He came here on His Father's mission and cleared the path for us to return to Him as long as we follow Him and obey His words.
During a talk at church one of the speakers asked a very interesting question. It was something like this, If Christmas is all about Christ and His birth, then how come we celebrate it by focusing on the presents and things? He said it better then I did or ever could but you get the idea.
One December we gathered together for a family
meeting. We began by asking our 11-year-old son how he would feel if on
his birthday we gave presents to everyone but him. He didn’t like that
idea at all. We went on to ask if there is a holiday when we give gifts
to others but not to the person whose birthday we are celebrating. It
didn’t take the children long to realize we were talking about
Christmas. We decided to start making Christmas more meaningful by
giving gifts to Jesus Christ, whose birthday we are celebrating.
Our
children wondered what they could give the Savior. We talked about what
He desires of us. We discussed His Atonement and His desire for us to
give up our sins and be obedient. We talked about how He wants us to
give of ourselves by serving and sharing our talents.
That
year, we had each family member write on slips of paper the gifts they
planned to give the Savior and place the slips in a box. On Christmas
morning, before we opened the other gifts, we had family prayer and
shared with each other the gifts we were giving the Savior for the
coming year.
As
the years have come and gone, the tradition of giving gifts to Jesus
Christ has helped our family focus on the real meaning of Christmas and
on our love and gratitude for Him.1
What an idea! Give a gift to Christ.
We read this in an early morning class I take and then we each wrote a gift to Christ on the back of the piece of paper.
The gift could be anything from serving others or smiling more to writing in your journal more often or more meaningful prayer or scripture study.
Today this is my challenge to you: think about then write down what your gift to Christ will be. It's kind of a New Year's Resolution but more spiritual, you might say.
I still can't believe it, Christmas is tomorrow!!
Well, as you open you gifts and spend time with loved ones, remember why it is that we have this wonderful holiday.
__________
1 Remebering Christ at Christmas. LDS.org. https://www.lds.org/liahona/1999/12/remembering-christ-at-christmas?lang=eng
Holidays are the perfect time to spend time with family.
And families are the most important unit on earth.
Some of the most important, and fun, family memories come from the holidays. Not just Christmas; Thanksgiving, Birthdays, New Year pretty much any event that is important to your family.
Now is the time that families are together the most; make the best of it.
This season is always a busy one. There's activities, plays, parties, family gatherings, shopping, recitals. It's kind of amazing how many things go on during the holidays.
In the movie Rascal, Willard North says something like, "What if we went through life and came to the end and we had never stopped to look at the flowers?"
Now is a perfect time to stop and look around.
This a great little video about stopping to look around and appreciate the beauty and memories that surround us.
In this month of December, I think the busiest month of the year, we really should stop, look and think. Stop what you're doing for a minute. Look around and see the blessings. Think about those blessings and aprreciate them.
Christmas is a time for family, friends and love. It just happens to be super busy. But that doesn't mean we can't stop and slow down to rest.
In a fast moving, fast growing world, don't forget to Stop, Look and Think
There's just so much you can write about the meaning of Christmas.
I think we all know the classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The miserly Scrooge and the cast of Christmas loving people.
Scrooge has a change of heart as he sees how his past choices have made up his present time and how the choices he makes now will decide the future. He learns to live in the Past, Present and Future; he promises to remember the past (but not linger on it too much), live in the present and look forward to the future.
I don't know if this exactly has a lot to do with the meaning of Christmas but I really like it; there's a radio drama series called Adventures in Odyssey. It's a great and teaches valuable lessons.
There's a couple episodes on the Christmas season.
One reminds us that if we can't be with our families for Christmas, or we're just feeling down during the holidays, simply remember past memories, Christmas or not. It also suggests that if you're feeling down, go serve someone. Sound funny? I can't blame you but I don't know how many people I've heard who've said the same thing.
Two other episodes, both in three parts, tell the story of Christ's birth and the travel and visit of the Magi, or Wise Men.
The episode I'm going to focus on is called The Day After Christmas. It's about a girl named Annie who, although she received a truckload of presents the day before, is already bored. She doesn't realize what she has.
She has the opportunity to visit a ghetto and befriends an elderly widow who everyone basically ignores. She learns that there's more to Christmas then the presents.
She learns that a part of the Christmas Spirit is service.
Service has always been an important thing in my life. Leaders at church talk a lot about it and I hear about it at home too.
Service is selflessly giving of your time, talents or things for someone else.
Service is a big part of the holiday season. I don't mean that people just randomly throw money out of their cars or anything but people are so much more inclined to serve in the months of November and December then in any months of the year. I don't know why exactly that is but everyone says that. And it's true.
Christmas is a time when, although money can be a problem and days are packed full of activities and parties, we all tend to pull together in different ways.
We care for people more, we bake cookies and give them to people, we wish the best for everyone. I know there are people who do these kinds of things all year long but it happens more around Christmas.
So, as you go about your busy holidays, remember, there's more to Christmas then the worldly things.
(Yes, I know, I've already packed 3 videos in this article but this last one is a great video about the meaning of Christmas)
_____
All these videos can be found on YouTube and LDS.org
Acts of kindness are always special. Random acts of kindness are great too.
On Facebook a newspaper centered in Roanoke, Virginia, GrowingUp In The Valley, has a 'Random Acts of Kindness' event going on, where you try to do an act of random service everyday.
Today I saw this as an advertisements on YouTube:
It was really good and reminds us about the powerful and incredible joy of giving. Like the guy says at the end, "It doesn't have to be material things."
I agree, you don't have to go out and do what the people did in this video.
One of the givers mentioned that "giving is always better." Another said that by giving we grow.
Interesting isn't it?
But at the same time it's true, at least I think so.
I like shopping for Christmas. Partially because it's such a wonderful secret to keep but mostly because I can't wait to see the person's face when they open it.
When we give we grow. Hmm. What do you think about that?
I think we do grow when we give. We grow in the knowledge that joy comes from giving to others. We grow to pay attention to others needs besides ourselves.
I have a challenge for you. Today do some act of kindness. It could just be smiling at someone, opening a door for someone, giving a hug, listening. Small things like that are all acts of kindness.
