Invaluable

The Christmas season should be a time of joyful celebration, a time spent with family and friends, punctuated with delicious food and ever so sweet sweets. But for a lot of people, the holiday season can be a very stressful time filled with extra work and worry, too little time, and too little money.

I have a large family with four children and six grandchildren, so trust me I know about stress during the holiday season. My wife, bless her heart, always takes care of picking out the gifts so at least I don’t have that stress. But I still have to figure out where we’re going, how we’re going to get there, who we’re going to see, and when we’re going to see them. Not to mention dealing with certain relatives that are certainly not easy to deal with. And of course, paying for a bunch of gifts. However, that’s nothing compared to the stress of a single Mother I know who cleans homes for a living and can barely feed her 6 kids, let alone buy them presents. Or the sick friend I visited in the hospital on Saturday who will be there over Christmas and doesn’t even know when he will get out. Their stress levels are obviously a lot higher than mine.

But as I thought about all the reasons there are to be stressed out, it occurred to me that I actually stopped “stressing out” in 1988. Before that year, I had believed in God but kept him at a comfortable distance. I was a young man focused on his career, working crazy hours, and chasing crazy dreams albeit with slightly skewed priorities. Then the storm came; my health failed, my marriage went south, and my career started spiraling down the toilet. Career, status, titles… all of a sudden, they held no value. But it was at that moment, when I was at my lowest, that I realized what I really needed to value... my own personal relationship with God. Once I started trusting him and valuing him, he removed my stress and gave me the gift of inner peace and good will.

So this Christmas season as I shop for valuable gifts for my family, I won’t forget the most valuable gift I ever received… It’s the reason for the season!

"And there were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night, and lo the angel of the lord came upon them and the glory of the lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid, and the angel said unto them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. And suddenly there was with the angels a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth - peace, good will toward men."