Welcome to the December 26th edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
The Story of My Week
Merry Christmas.
I want to wish you the best of the season and pray that God's grace will continue to be on you.
My goal for this month was pretty simple.
I wanted to create memories with my family.
One of the biggest ways I knew to do that is to be available to live out the dreams that every member of the family have for the season.
Sometimes, it's not the big things we do that move the needle.
It's the commitment we make to share in the things that matter most to the people that matter most to us that really counts.
I am still in the Christmas mood.
Taking time off work for the rest of the year.
Creating the memories.
Things I Learnt
1-The Community we Lack: Someone remarked that there seems to be a Christmas competition going on this year.
A lot of people were posting family pictures in different Christmas outfits.
Matching pajamas, Matching sweaters, Matching Christmas outfits, followed by best wishes for the future.
My response.
Not unexpected.
Most of us don't have a community that we are part of with which we can share those moments, so we share it with the rest of the world.
The more we lose our close-knit family & community connections, the more we will try to get the rest of the world to notice us.
It's not a problem with social media.
It's the challenge we face with our busy lives.
Unless we actively pause, we will ever be searching for our community.
Our tribe.
The place where we belong.
2-The Gift we Give & Receive: Christmas is a season for giving and receiving gifts.
Gift-giving is a strange thing. Will they like the gift or not?
You have to remind yourself why you give those gifts.
Gifts are given to appreciate the person.
This means the gift has to mean something that the person would like.
Receiving the gift must also show respect to the giver.
One of the ways this has played out for our family is alcoholic drinks.
We don't drink alcohol.
Not because it is a sin. But it is an act of worship for our family to God.
We receive alcoholic drinks as gifts during Christmas. We do it without making an issue to the people giving us.
And we give it to neighbors who take alcohol since it is something they would appreciate.
We may not appreciate alcoholic beverages but we respect those giving them to us.
And we appreciate those who take them from us because it is what they like.
Postscript
May the joy of Christmas refresh you and renew your hope in a God who is working all things together for good His children. Amen.
Tata,
Tola - The Everyday Disciple
I help Christians like you who want to live intentional lives incorporate their faith into everyday life so they can make Christ focused decisions in all areas of life and truly live to make an impact and make God happy.
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