Light Em Up

Ever since my aunt passed away a couple of months before Christmas my senior year of high school I’ve become what some people would call a scrooge before Christmas. I guess that was the year everything was truly put into prospective for me. All the glitz and glamour of what we’ve made Christmas to be about does not matter a bit. All the gifts under the tree that year brought no comfort or joy to her 5 children that she left behind. It was then that I really realized for the first time how we’ve turned this season from celebrating the birth of Christ into anything but celebrating His birth. I get anxious and irritable every year before Christmas. This year I was so bad I threatened not to even put up a tree… I realize how extreme and irrational I was being so I did decide to put a tree

I am very glad my thoughts about Christmas are shared with a lot of those around me including my husband. We’ve talked a lot this season about how we want Christmas to be like in our home after we have children. We are really considering just three gifts. The reason for three? Jesus was given three gifts by the three wise men. We also want our children to participate in activities where they give back.

That is why I was so excited when I found this great idea on a blog. The basic principle is to share God’s love with those around you (it may be people you know or do not know) by “random acts of kindness”. Many of you have probably seen similar ideas on Facebook or Pinterest but this particular blog that I discovered the idea to do this for Christmas breaks it down for you and makes it as easy as can be. The writer of this blog gives you ideas for random acts of kindness, gift tags to leave behind to the recipient and a planning guide on PDFs that you can download. I know we are all very busy during this time of year and sometimes even scrooges like me still get caught up in the hustle and bustle. But I love this idea and am so grateful someone made it so easy for us by providing all these resources. My challenge to each of you that reads this is to do one random act of kindness. Just one. We never know what the difference of that 1 act can make.

Merry Christmas!

To read the blog yourself and to download the PDFs visit http://www.lillightomine.com/light-em-up-2011.php .