Are We Celebrating Xmas or Christmas?

As the Advent season begins, I have been reminded that the way Christians celebrate Christmas should look different than the way others celebrate Christmas. I think we might be missing out.

If Christ was removed from the way we celebrate Christmas, would the change be obvious? In our hearts? To the outside observer?

I would answer a hesitant yes. While not going to church would be strange, the other changes would be minimal. A few songs would be missing from my Christmas playlist. Our family would not read the Christmas story together, sing hymns, or display the nativity set.

In my opinion, the change should be dramatic. But what should our celebration look like? Well, what does it look like now? Many of us enjoy four aspects of Christmas celebration: family time, beautiful decor, gifts, and Christmas music.

Davy's Delight: Misplaced?

Life is good for me right now. My daily path is relatively flat, with only minor peaks and valleys along the way. As a result, I am delighting in small things and trying not to be distressed by unfulfilled desires.

Delight: Making $0.72 one day on my blog. In my season of unemployment, any income is nice.

Desire: A job. After every move, I have exhausted myself frantically searching for a job. Each time, one falls in my lap from a different way. This time, I decided to skip the frantic searching. Nothing has fallen in my lap. Now what?

Delight: Time to bake, craft, and spend time with friends.

Desire: To be an excellent cook, baker, and crafter. I do realize that this desire is very unlikely to be fulfilled. ;)

Delight: Evenings and weekends with my husband. After a season of long commutes and nights apart, we are thrilled to have time together.

Desire: Family in the general vicinity. Yes, four or six states away is too far.

I don't want to be so caught up in delights and desires that I fail to notice the Giver of Delight.

Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." The verse does not mean that God will give me whatever I want. Instead, it means that when my delight is in the Lord, my desires will be aligned with His will.

So, I am asking the Lord to be my delight, to align my desires and delights with His will.

Do you have practical ideas for delighting yourself in the Lord?

Craft: The Prayer Box

In order to consistently pray for our family and friends, my husband and I decided to create a family prayer box. After dinner each evening, we take one card from each category and pray for the people on it. We hope to pray in this way for each of our immediate family members at least once per week and each person or family in the other categories about once per month.

My first step in the process was finding the perfect box. I could not find even a recipe card box in local stores, but found this oneon Amazon. It just so happens that the brand is Semikolon, and the logo is a semicolon (see picture). The semicolon is my favorite punctuation mark, so that's a bonus. Yes, I do have a favorite punctuation mark.

In order to create the divider cards, I glued two letter cards together. Then, I made labels on my good friend, the label maker, and wrapped them around the tabs. We chose the following categories:

• Immediate Family
• Friends/Extended Family
• Church Family
• Global/Other

I wrote names on the front of index cards and specific prayer topics on the back, if known. And there you have it. Our family prayer box.

How does your family remember to pray for the people around you?

Food: Healthy, or Something Like It

I studied website after website. Eat whole grains, avoid all grains. Eat raw fruits and vegetables, eat only organic foods, avoid certain fruits and vegetables. This food is too acidic, that one feeds a dangerous yeast, everything is too processed. By the end of my research, I was stressed out and my mind was all tangled up. Even worse, I had very little idea of what we should actually eat. After a few hours and a good talk with my husband, I felt peace.

We are all going to die. Sorry to break it to you, but the magic diet will not make anyone live forever. And, honestly, a life without ice cream and pizza is a life that we do not really want to live.

I believe that we should be good stewards of everything we have been given. "Everything" includes our bodies, but also our time and resources. Right now, I cannot afford to buy organic, free-range, grass fed, whole grain, etc. I do not love to bake or cook and am not great at it either.

So, I do what is reasonable for us:

• I buy fruits and vegetables that are on sale. A non-organic carrot has to be better choice than potato chips. Ground turkey has to be better than 75/25 ground chuck. Other options could be better, but the price cannot fit in my grocery budget.
• I make sourdough bread. According to my research, our bodies can handle sourdough much better than other types of bread. Also, this bread recipe requires three ingredients: water, flour, and salt. I can handle that. [A word of warning: sourdough requires some time]
• I make granola. This recipe takes me about twenty minutes from start to finish, and I am happy to eat each of the ingredients. To make it a little more healthy, I use coconut oil instead of canola oil.

The recipes you will find on this blog will be inexpensive and simple. Most of them will be somewhat healthy. I hope you enjoy them.

How do you eat well in a cost-effective, simple way?