Lessons we can learn around Christmas time

MOST of us can genuinely say we love our children and would do anything for them. Sadly, in an effort to please and demonstrate our love, we actually end up inadvertently hurting them… particularly around this time of year.

Let me quote 1 Timothy 6:6-11. Then, let’s dissect it for lessons we can learn around Christmas time.

“Godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it. If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.”

Around this time of year, the discussions with my children begin to change and focus immensely on material gain. “Mom, so and so is getting this. I want this for Christmas. Why can’t I have…? Mom, I’ll be so happy if I get…” These types of conversations leave me in concern and prayer.

I want my children to understand the value of being content with what they have, but simultaneously, I don’t want to deny them gifts and make them feel unloved in a commercial world that feeds them the lie every day that Christmas is a time to spend enormous amounts of money buying people you love gifts.

How can I protect them from focusing so much on loving things that I set them up to be plunged into “ruin and destruction” as the verse states later in life?“

I believe this verse holds incalculable wisdom, because I have observed both personally and through the lives of public figures what can happen to people who set their sights on material gain in an effort to gain happiness. I can testify that for the love of money many indeed do foolish and harmful things.

I have observed even in myself how much I have sought certain things of specific monetary value. I have dreamed and obsessed over acquiring some “thing” only to be left dissatisfied when the wait is over and the present is opened.

Within a few weeks, I have bored of the “thing” and set my sights on something new, only to end up with closets full of stuff that offered a moment of joy and ultimately end up in a landfill to pollute our earth.

On the flip side, there are a few special gifts that stand out over the years that really meant a lot and still remain meaningful to this day.