Our world makes it challenging to keep Christ in Christmas.

Anyone else notice that?

Don’t get me wrong: I love this season. The lights and festivities. I’m a Christmas baby and I find this time of year magical. I love experiencing it with my kids…the excuse to wear Christmas pajamas days on end, reading holiday books, sipping hot chocolate and eating cookies for lunch…

But more than anything, I want to make it meaningful. I want Jesus to be the focus. I want my kids to know what the day and all the celebrating is really about. They won’t hear it at school or see it in the sales advertisements. They will know because we will show them.

Our Nativity, waiting on Jesus to arrive Christmas morning

Here are some ways we make Christmas meaningful (and a few ideas we plan to implement):

1. Set up a Nativity and make it a focus in your home. [We put ours front and center on the entry table in our home].
2. Hide baby Jesus and “seek” Him Christmas morning before opening gifts. [I did this first thing this year. Here's how I found it half an hour later. Turns out Mary had a little Snowman. I love four year olds].
3. (or) Gift wrap baby Jesus in your nativity and let this be your first unwrapped gift Christmas morning.
4. Take a cue from the Magi and limit the gifts and reminding kids it’s not their birthday, it’s His.
5. Have a daily family devotion that unwraps Christmas, here’s ours for this year. [This is perfect for families. It offers a verse for each day and a question or two that will hopefully lead to a meaningful discussion. You can get it for 30% off now with code SUPER30].
6. Participate in Advent. Last year, we did the Jesse Tree Advent. And I love this Advent ebook for little hands.
7. Light an Advent wreath each day leading up to Christmas.
8. Have a birthday cake for Jesus or go all out and make it a birthday party! I love this Happy Birthday, Jesus! Celebration Kit. (Also 30% off with code: SUPER30)
9. Watch DVDS like Why Do We Call It Christmas? that help you tell the real story of Christmas.
10. Give your kids the gift of giving: Have them shop with purpose. This year we are giving our kids money to shop from the Compassion gift catalog.
11. Or buy something that blesses twice and changes lives (Mercy Shop). Ahem.
12. Don’t stress about things that really don’t matter this Season. I have been a Christmas hoarder in the past. Last year, I had two newlywed couples come and dig thru my decorations. I saved two boxes of things I value most and gave the rest away. It’s simple this year and I like it.
13. Make the Nativity interactive with tools like What God Wants for Christmas. I’m really excited to try this out! It’s from the creators of Resurrection Eggs.
14. Do something for someone else on Christmas Day. This will be our fifth year to visit the NICU (with treats) that saved our daughter’s life five Christmas’ ago.
15. Talk with your kids about giving God a gift. What does He want from us?
16. Hang a stocking for Christ. Fill it with notes just for Him.
17. Invite someone to share Christmas dinner with your family. This is a goal for us this year.
18. Shop for an impoverished child (Angel Tree). Our community group from church has adopted a family with five kids. We are so excited to shop for the kids and DELIVER a the gifts and a Christmas meal on Christmas Eve this year with our close friends!
19. Don’t participate in the excessive commercialism. Enough said.
20. Watch The Nativity Story together as a family. We started this tradition two years ago. I think this PG movie tells the greatest story ever told very well.
21. Help your kids shop for their siblings.
22. Talk about the symbols of Christmas.
23. Be generous as a family at Christmas-baking, giving, doing.
24. Hold a Yule log party: it’s an old European custom to bring in an enormous log on Christmas Eve and it in the fireplace (or fire pit) and say prayers. Today, Yule log cakes and eggnog are served. You can sing carols, read Scripture, tell stories, pray for the new year, and have good fellowship.
25. Bake, make or buy a special gift for your Pastor. We did Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Rolls year before last. What a gift!
26. Cherish traditions with your family. Start a new one! Like the next one:
27. When preparing your Christmas meal, set a literal place for Jesus, your honored guest.
28. Attend church on Christmas Eve. This is a highlight for our family!
29. Read Luke 2 together on Christmas Eve or morning. We’ve been doing this since before we had kids.
30. Leave a Nativity out all year long. I did this last year and it was really special.

[God spoke these words to my heart while I was at the Relevant Conference. Perhaps they are for you? I wrote them down for me.]

We could have said no. We could have pushed away the beckoning to respond in such a manner. The months of churning and wrestling, seeking and struggling, the labor pain that gave birth to Mercy.

Would you have thought less of us? Sponsoring more kids, changing our priorities, losing the American Dream….they were enough. Maureen would have understood if we’d answered, “No, we can’t help right now.” Right?

It would have been okay for our response to be okay.

I know this.

And the truth? Standing at cliff’s edge, we wanted to say no. We asked if there was another way. We researched and begged. We cried it is too big, we can’t, we are afraid, we don’t know how.  We don’t want to love mercy.

We didn’t throw caution to the wind. We didn’t just jump into the chasm of the unknown.

We jumped into the very hands of God.

(photo source)

Why? Why do the uncomfortable? Why go beyond the comfort zone and risk so much? Every one of us has a unique purpose for our lives and our blogs. It’s a risk finding that purpose. It leaves you exposed and open to criticism and fear and failure.

It leaves you open for the supernatural, the extraordinary.

Stepping into the unknown re-destines your life.

When we jumped, it was as if He had poised people all over the world, who were waiting. Waiting for someone to say yes. We said yes, so they could say yes. Jumping, unleashed a force we didn’t know existed. Hundreds and hundreds of people who were waiting, praying, wanting the opportunity help us without even knowing us.

We are on the adventure of our lives. Yes, it’s scary. It’s uncertain. Control is gone, we are asking, believing for each new step, every day.  This journey isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon of hills and valleys.

This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

I believe everyone who believes will stand at the edge.. You can say no. You can push away the beckoning to jump. Everyone would understand if you walked away. It would be okay to be okay. Right?

You won’t know what you’re missing, your path will continue and life will go on.

But.

What if life is better, God is nearer, peace is more certain, faith is found in the jumping?

“This is how God works: he puts his people in positions where they are desperate for his power, and then he shows his provision in ways that display his greatness.” -David Platt

What if someone is waiting on you to jump?

So they can say yes.

What are you contemplating today? What are you waiting on?

I’m linking this post up to Muthering Heights series “How big is your But?”….

*I heard a story about a woman who had a dream: She was in a vast stadium filled with thousands and thousands of people. The crowd was focused on the field.

There were people bringing children out, one at a time, and they were looking for homes for them…just giving the kids away. The kids were beautiful and as each one was on display, people in the crowd vied for the child.

It happened over and over.

Then another child was brought out. But this time the child was ugly. Hideous. It was hard to look upon her face without turning away. No one stepped forward for this child. The crowd was silent. There was no tug-of-war for this child like the others.

But then, a man stepped forward. He lovingly took the child in his arms. He scooped her up like she already belonged to him.

It was Jesus.

When the dreaming woman looked closer she recognized the child and her gestures.

She stared intently and recognized  her own face.

She was the unattractive child.

I used to think the word adopted was reserved for orphans from third-world countries or the lucky kids rescued out of the foster care system.

Until Jesus came and chose me in my ugly sin. He took my orphaned spirit and became my father.

Jesus adopted me and grafted me into His family.

Adoption isn’t just a word splashed on fundraiser t-shirts or reserved for those who are following God by bringing an orphan into their home.

Adoption is a part of my story, too.

Is it a part of yours?

———————————-

Knowing that according to the United Nations latest results, there are more than 160 million orphans in our world today, I would be bereft if I didn’t mention a day I’d like you to champion: Nov. 7 is Orphan Sunday. You can read about it here. Would you consider talking to your church about praying for the orphans of the world on this day?

After all, adoption is a part of all our story, isn’t it?

Why Love Orphans? from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

*as told by JD Greear at the Together for Adoption Conference

I was late.

So, I slipped into the back of the crowded room and crouched on the floor.

I couldn’t see the face of speaker, Tom Davis, CEO of Children’s Hope Chest at the Together for Adoption Breakout Q&A Session. But it didn’t matter, his words still pierced.

He is a modern-day abolishionist, rescuing young girls from the terrifying grips of sex slavery. Every minute a child in our world is trafficked. Every minute.

I listened as he answered questions about the unbelievable life these girls lead, most servicing a dozen or more men every day and the dangerous covert rescue operations that his organization orchestrates with the local police.

It was terrible and beautiful to hear.

One of the questions: “How many girls do you know about that need to be rescued right now?”

Tom Davis: “Three. It costs about $2000.00 per rescue.”

He went on to describe the safe house the girls are taken to and the elaborate process of rehabilitation.

It was time for the session to end. As Tom shared his final thoughts, a man from the crowd pressed towards the front. He was nervous as he spoke, but their was authority and anointing behind his words, “I don’t know Tom Davis and his associate. I don’t know any of you. But I know there are about 80 people in this room. And there are 3 girls who are in slavery, being forced into the unthinkable, waiting to be rescued. If we all gave $30 each, we would have enough money to rescue one of them right now. My company will match whatever is given today,” he urged in the hushed room.

Tom Davis concluded the session with prayer.

My own tears splashed onto my $30 check as I ripped it from the checkbook. The room was noisy with silent tears and generosity.

Within minutes the table at the front of the room looked like this:

On my own, I couldn’t rescue a girl being sex trafficked. But my small check added to 79 others, makes a powerful impact.

It’s the power of working together for the cause of Christ. It’s ordinary mixed with God’s extra.

It’s taking 3 minutes to pray for the 3 girls raped every 45 minutes in Kenya. It’s giving $3 a month.

That off-the-cuff gesture by one man listening to the urging in his inner man didn’t raise enough money to rescue one girl or three.

That pile of money will rescue six girls being sex trafficked. Six!

Don’t underestimate the power of doing something, even when it seems insignificant. Don’t think that your small gesture doesn’t matter. Don’t let the opportunity pass to make a difference in the life of someone today.

*photo from the conference Twitter stream

Many evenings during summer, after brother and sister were tucked into bed, my oldest daughter and I would talk. We’ve worked our way, one page at a time, though the book, Preparing Your Daughter for Every Woman’s Battle.

I’ve mentioned before that this book is not for the faint-of-heart, as would be expected with a book about sexual purity. (Yes, 10 years old is young, but I wanted to tell her before the world did. Now anything she might hear can be compared to the standard found in the Bible.)

But the chapter on how we talk really got to me:

I smiled as she squeezed toothpaste onto a paper plate at my instruction.

“Now,” I said dramatically and paused. “Put all the toothpaste back into the tube.”

She looked at me, confident, at first. But soon, she was covered in minty goo and knew the task was impossible.

After she washed her hands and snuggled back into my bed, I explained how our words, like the sticky toothpaste, once spoken are impossible to get back. And we just made a big mess trying. We talked about respect and thinking before we speak. We talked about the power of the tongue, how it can bring life or death.

She scooted off to bed and I remembered how often my mouth got me in trouble when I was her age. Talking-back and being sassy were some of my biggest struggles. (I was bestowed the gift of sarcasm at a very young age).

And then I thought about how often (EVERY DAY, it seems) I say something I shouldn’t. I’m not a kid anymore. I nag my hubby about stuff I WANT DONE. I gripe at my children for messes I don’t want to clean up. I complain to my friends about something I don’t agree with. There are a lot of “I’s” in that last sentence.

I want this: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:4

It was a devotion for her.

But the words hit me in the big fat mouth.

_________________________

Do you struggle with your tongue?

Cardboard Stories from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.

What does your sign say?

It started with a handful of college kids.

They knew modern day slavery, commonly known as sex trafficking, was destroying the lives of thousands and thousands of girls who were trapped in the worse kind of Hell.

So. They came up with a crazy idea: They would rescue one girl.

Their Idea:

In March of 2009, four friends simply said “yes” to the inspiration to do something about human trafficking. Rescue The Girl started as an event to raise enough money to at least rescue one girl from the horrors of modern slavery. Within just a few weeks the four friends were on a plane to India to film a documentary about the tragedy and hope of modern slavery. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into.

This July our team is going back to India to bring hope and healing to girls rescued from the horrors of the brothels. We’re going on the ground, into the thick of it, to tell them that they are worth fighting for as we hand-deliver inspired art, personal messages, and nearly $10,000 in aftercare raised by hundreds of students and ordinary people like you and me. We’re showing them how valuable and loved they really are!

Bottom line: These kids need money. Will you give? Will you help them rescue another girl?

I know the couple behind this ministry. They go to my church. They have been married for less than three months and they are world changers. Yesterday, we talked about the terribly wrong things in the world. Child sex slaves is among the worst.

Will you strive and yearn with them to Rescue the Girl?

Donate here.

I think he is right. And in doing so, I’m trying to figure out what this means for my family.

What do you think?

from the book, Radical by David Platt