My wife and I started a fun and meaningful Christmas tradition of giving gifts to Jesus Christ for Christmas. With all the shopping, gift giving, and hustle around the holidays it can be easy to forget the true "reason for the season." Since, Christmas is in commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, it makes sense to give Christ gifts for Christmas. But this concept immediately creates the ultimate difficulty; that of getting something for "the One" who really has everything. Luckily, the scriptures help us out on what Christ's interests are; his hobbies and such. From the following few scriptures it appears that Christ enjoys things that begin with the letter "S", namely: sin, souls, and service.Accordingly, each member of the family selects an object which most closely represents their gift to the Savior. The object is wrapped and placed under the Christmas tree to be opened on Christmas Eve. Gift ideas include: scriptures to represent a commitment to read scriptures daily during the next year, bar of soap to represent the giving up of a favorite sin or bad habit, a picture of the temple as a desire to attend the temple often, a stack of pass-along-cards to be given away during the next year, etc, etc. Our family has found that this simple tradition has helped us focus better on Christ during Christmas. So, what are you going to give Christ this year?
Matt. 25: 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Mosiah 2: 17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.
Alma 22: 18 O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee
D&C 18: 10 Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;
Ps. 34: 18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
The thing I finally learnt by going on a mission is that when you try to pay Christ back by doing things he wants, you just end up more blessed. Then you owe him even more still.
ReplyDeleteI like your post. That's some good ideas.