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December
23 |
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Today's
quotation:
At
Christmastime, children play an essential part in our
celebrations. So much of what we do is intended to please
them-- and all the while our hearts keep hearkening back to the
Christmas memories of our own childhoods. On Christmas Eve,
sometimes we can't help but envy our children the stars in their
eyes, especially when our own eyes are dull with exhaustion.
Christmas is so much simpler for a child. Can
we open our tired, adult eyes to that same simplicity?
Ellen Sanna
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Today's
Meditation:
Almost
everyone that I know complicates Christmas a great
deal. They buy too many gifts, or worse, they feel
obligated to buy too many gifts because of what they
perceive as other people's expectations (and potential
disappointment). They dread the family get-togethers
and don't want to go to them, but they rarely say
no. They spend more money than they have and then
suffer for that for months afterwards. It's quite
sad that we don't allow ourselves simply to sit back and
enjoy the Christmas season.
A
lot of the stress that we feel during the season is based
on expectations, especially those of the children that we
don't want to disappoint. Many kids have developed
grandiose expectations of gifts to be gotten, and they
know how to put the pressure on their parents if they feel
that there's the slightest possibility of getting what
they want. But trying to meet other people's
expectations is rarely a recipe for happiness.
Christmas should be a great opportunity for us to show
people who we are in our generosity, not a chance to show
them that they can manipulate us with their expectations.
Simplifying
Christmas is very important if we ever want to feel the
true joy of the holiday. Christmas is about peace
and the joy we can share with others, and there are plenty
of ways that we can share those things without getting
caught up in the decorating contests and the buying
frenzies and the manipulations. In our family, we
realized early on that Christmas should be simple, and the
simpler we keep it, the more we're able to give during the
rest of the year, also.
Remember,
pleasing children isn't a question of giving in to all
their whims and wants. Pleasing them also has to do
with teaching them the true importance of holidays such as
Christmas, about the reverence and the peace and the joy
we're meant to share. They can help us to realize
this joy if we can just learn about the wonder and the
magic from them, and combine that knowledge with our own
knowledge of the significance of the more important
aspects of the holiday season.
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Questions to
consider:
Do you find Christmas to be a stressful time
or a peaceful,
reverent time? Why?
What kinds of things can we learn from children during
the holidays?
Why does simpler tend to be better in almost
everything? |
For further
thought:
Christmas
is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace
and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy,
is to have the real spirit of
Christmas.
Calvin
Coolidge
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more
thoughts and ideas on Christmas
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