A Time to Give

A Time To Give

This is the first year that my husband and I are spending Christmas together as a married couple, and to be completely transparent, deciding how to spend the holidays has been a big source of tension in our new marriage.

When we first began to discuss what the holiday season would look like this year, we both wanted things to look exactly how they did for us growing up. The problem was that we had different childhoods, different experiences, and different ideas of what an ideal Christmas should look like! Neither of us wanted to sacrifice our own traditions for the traditions embraced by our spouse.  Instead of holiday traditions bringing us together to celebrate the birth of our Savior, they became a source of selfishness and a distraction from the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas is all about God making the most selfless decision of all. He sent his son Jesus into the world to die for our sins and give us eternal life. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

God gave. He didn’t just give a little, He gave us His very own Son so that our sins would be forgiven and we could have everlasting life with Him.

As we re-evaluate what our first married Christmas will look like, my husband and I both feel challenged to take a cue from our Creator and see how much we can give rather than how much we can take. Although it wasn’t easy to change things up this year, we’ve decided that spending Christmas Eve with Ryan’s family and spending Christmas morning with my family is a plan that we both feel good about.

Our challenge to you is to see how you can GIVE this season. Then, enjoy the abundant blessings that come from being a cheerful giver! (2 Corinthians 9:6-8)

Traditions are special and important, but the true joy of Christmas comes from knowing that God loved us enough to give us His son Jesus, the Savior of the world.