Stockings to Fill This Christmas

Photo from www.flickr.com – Franci Storr

It is Christmas time once again which is special and magical in a way like no other for our family.  We have four young children who love the holidays, and eagerly anticipate the gifts they will receive.  But Christmas is not without its challenging factors.  It is filled with busyness and overtaken with selfish materialism for stuff, but we can overcome these challenges.  Most families still hang and fill stockings for one another at Christmas.  With this in mind, I want to share five stockings for your family to seek to fill this Christmas.

  1. Gratitude – Our families should desire to fill up this holiday season with gratefulness and thanksgiving to God and one another.  It seems our culture wants to just skip over Thanksgiving to get to the shopping frenzy of Christmas.  With all of the gift giving, family gatherings, and end-of-year reflection, surely we can find ample reasons to be grateful!
  2. Love – For many the thoughts of Christmas are tied to a warm home on a cold night with a tree sparkling bright.  The family is gathered inside with chatter and smiles all around.  The holidays are all about expressing love to one another.  The concept of giving presents is rooted in the idea of expressing love to one another.  Let’s fill up our homes with love.  Be sure to express love and seek to give love this holiday.
  3. Serenity – This may be the toughest of stockings to fill.  With shopping lists to complete, gifts to wrap, parties to attend, and regular life still marching on, finding serenity is a challenge.  But seek to find serenity during this holiday season.  Enjoy the days you have off from school or work.  Watch Christmas movies or read some Christmas children’s books to your kids.  Let the house get a little messy and toys stay out after they are unwrapped.  Savor your family.  Don’t let the pressure to have a perfect holiday, keep you from enjoying the one you have.
  4. Joy – One of my favorite Christmas songs is Joy to the World.  Christmas season should be a joyous and magical time of year.  While there can be frustrating parts, don’t take the pure joy out of Christmas.  Let the kids enjoy the magic of Santa Claus and all the wonder of the season.  Take joy in being with family and the fun of giving and receiving.  Surely, we can live out Paul’s teaching at Christmas, “rejoice always, again I say rejoice.”
  5. Generosity – One of the best parts of Christmas to me is the practice of giving presents.  It is just plain fun to give and receive gifts.  We should fill up the stocking of generosity this time of year by giving to one another and also to others who have less.  Choose to be generous with what you have received and share with others. Our Lord did say, “It is more blessed to give, than receive.”

This Christmas season choose to hang and fill these five stockings for your family.  I can guarantee that if they overflow in your home you will have a most wonderful Christmas!

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  1. Excellent stocking stuffers!

  1. […] Stockings to Fill This Christmas […]

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