Problems and Promises - Part Two

With the year of 2022 coming to a close, a thought occurred to me. The world has changed… and it will never be the same again.

For most of my adult life I lived what you would consider a normal life. I fell in love, got married, raised children, and worked five days a week. I attended my children’s school events, took my family to church on Sundays, played on a men’s baseball team and occasionally golfed on weekends. My wife and I went to concerts with friends and had friends over to visit. And I really enjoyed going out to dinner with my wife, where we would hold hands and smile, look deep into the eyes of one another, and talk about our wild and crazy, adventure filled life, with its multitude of problems and promises.  

However, the past few years have obviously been very different, and we now have a new normal. A new normal that does not include any of those fun filled activities listed above, except for maybe the last one, that is if we can find a restaurant with an outdoor patio. We may have lost the pleasure of eating together inside a nice restaurant, but for over two years now, my wife and I have gotten to enjoy almost every single breakfast, lunch, and dinner together. That has been the bright spot in an otherwise very dark period of time.

The pandemic may have forced us to stay home, but it has also allowed us to spend more time together than ever before. I think that’s probably true for a lot of husbands and wives and families. In our case, spending so much time together has caused our love to grow deeper and stronger than I ever thought possible. The bond that we now share is a blessing beyond blessings, and it has taught me a valuable lesson that is especially poignant at Christmas time. The greatest gift ever given to mankind was when God showed us his love by sending his son to spend time with us here on earth. Which means that no matter what problems we may have - spending time with the ones we love - will help us overcome them. That’s a promise!

 “And that’s the real meaning of Christmas – Charlie Brown!”

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."

Part With It Now

Christmas is coming, which means most of us are busy shopping for gifts for family and friends. It’s definitely a hectic and stressful time of year. There is so much to do on top of our regular jobs and all the other end of the year things that need to get done. Fortunately, we can use credit cards to buy whatever we need now, and worry about paying for it all later. How great is that!

Dave Ramsey, the famous financial guru, says it’s not so great. In fact, Dave says nobody should ever use a credit card… ever! We should use a debit card. His reasoning is two-fold. First, credit cards make it possible to spend money we don’t have, which is never a good thing. And second, if we use a debit card, we know the money is going to instantly disappear from our bank account, which forces us to stop and think about how much money we have in the bank, and whether or not we really want to part with it.

And that got me thinking… When I put Dave Ramsey’s philosophy together with the Christmas spirit, at first they seem at odds. I want to do something nice for my family and friends versus I shouldn’t spend money I don’t have.

But maybe they do make sense together! The most valuable things I have are the love in my heart (my internal bank account) and the time in my life (my real currency). That’s what I should give to my family and friends! And it shouldn’t be like a credit card where I pay it down the road. It should be like a debit card, where I part with it right now!

A hug is a great gift, one size fits all and it’s easy to exchange.

~ Anonymous