Christmas Shoes

      I am so excited about the Christmas season. I really did not expect to be happy about it but I am getting into the spirit of Christmas. If you know me at all, you know that I love, love, love Christmas movies. I have been watching them for about a few weeks now. I love any Christmas movie, whether it be sappy romance or Christmas magic. I really adore all of the Hallmark Christmas movies and the ABC Family 25 days of Christmas movies (especially since most are on Netflix.) We just went last weekend to see the new Kirk Cameron movie Saving Christmas. While it is a low budget film, it does not have a low budget meaning.
      I have grown up in a Christian home and have been in church since my mom recovered from my birth, but I have never heard anyone explain why we have certain traditions at Christmas time the way Kirk Cameron does in the film. I do not want to spoil things for you, but I will tell you that it is worth the money you will pay to see it. I am going to give credit where it is due, and that is GOD, but I believe that He used this film to speak to my heart about what my focus should be this season.
      You see, I was looking at this Christmas through selfish eyes. I kept dwelling on not being a mom this Christmas, and this being yet another year in my married life that I do not have a baby to buy gifts for. However, that is not what Christmas means and the focus was never intended to be on us. Christmas is a reflection on what Christ did through His birth, life, death and resurrection. No where in the Bible to we read that we are to reflect on the things that we do not have, only on the things we do. I am to be thankful for His blessings, which He graciously bestows each and every day, and not worry about the ones that He does not. In other words, I am to be content.
      I have been in to Pinterest a lot lately, and I read something that blew my mind. I read a sign that said "If we wake up tomorrow with only the things we have said "thank you" to GOD for, what would we wake up and still have?" That blew my mind reading that, because I get so "busy" with my life that I forget to thank or even acknowledge God. I know that He has been teaching me to be thankful. I definitely take the everyday blessings for granted.
      LORD, help me to be content this season and to be thankful for the blessings that you give, also the gifts of others (even the gifts I do not want)