The Christmas Legacy

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!

I love everything about it, the trees, the lights, the decorations, the music, the sound of the Salvation Army bell outside the stores, wrapping paper and bows... But most of all I love the beauty of a little baby born so long ago.

But there's all these lights and bows and songs....and GIFTS!! One of my favorite ways to express love and appreciation is giving gifts. I love thinking about what to get people, then shopping for them, then wrapping them in all kinds of decorative paper and bags and then GIVING them! It's one of the best parts of the season to me, and I have been known to go a bit over board. Ben's second Christmas was nothing short of an orgy of gluttony and honestly his birthdays have been that way too.

Last Christmas I decided we needed to take the year off from gifts and focus on the real meaning of Christmas. This year, well a friend told me awhile back that she knew of a family whose kids got 3 gifts only, because that's all Jesus got. I loved it! What a great tie in for smaller kids to help really bring home the Christmas story at a young age! And I determined that those gifts be meaningful and educational and not just more stuff.

Honestly, being on a three gift limit has been A LOT harder than just not buying anything. Christmas really is such a commercialized monster now, there's flashy toys and gifts EVERYWHERE you look. I understand why kids lose their minds this time of year because I come close to it as well. Last year I just turned a deaf ear to it all but this year since am actually shopping it's been harder to drown out the noise. And I want to buy Ben every cool toy I see.

And I can give in and do that, but it all comes down to this: WHAT is the Christmas Legacy I want my son to be left with when he's an adult?

Is it all the pomp and circumstance-as my husband calls it-or is it the truth that God's love for us is so tremendous He chose to come here, to this world in the most vulnerable state possible to do what nothing and no one else could do-bridge the gap and bring us to Him.

Is is about how many fancy toys he can get each year or how many times he can reach out and give love this season-and all year long?

I'm not a perfect parent and am FAR from a perfect Christian but I know what I want more than anything in the world is for my precious child to grow up knowing God, loving God and living each day in the truth that living life for God is what matters most because everything else flows from there.

And so on this last day of November I am grateful for God's tenacity and faithfulness to continually change my heart and open my eyes to the ways and places I can bring Him more into Ben's life and mind, and become closer to them both in the process.

With God's help I did finally narrow the scope and pick out 3 quality gifts plus a stocking stuffer! and I didn't give in to all the temptation floating around me, and my prayer is that I will continue building a legacy of a Christ centered Christmas, as well as a Christ centered life, more and more each year, because I know that is the gift my son most deserves.

"For God SO loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life!" John 3:16

May you all experience His precious gift this Christmas season!