Celebrate Christmas with time instead of money

Celebrate Christmas with time instead of money
By Jo Scott

Next year if Christians spent time instead of money on Christmas our whole culture would benefit.  Think about it.  This year the uproar over whether it's a “Holiday Season” or a "Christmas Season" has overwhelmed the news with complaints from both the Christian and secular consumers.  What if, next year, Christians said nothing of the retail store's seasonal political correctness, but quietly stopped spending money and started spending time to put Christ back into Christmas with our own families.  The result would be phenomenal.  Stores realizing the retail slump would be proclaiming everything from toilet tissue to flat screen T Vs to be “Christmas gifts”.  I'm willing to bet that nativity scenes would pop up on billboards and even outside of some retail chain stores.  But that would be the least of the benefits. 

What if we Christians really spent time instead of money on the spiritual needs of our families?  Traditionally, Christmas shopping starts the day after Thanksgiving and continues in a mad rush until Christmas Eve, a month later.  If we, the Christian community, would put that much focused time and energy into the spiritual well being of our families, our nation would feel the effects of our time well spent for years to come.  God is awesome and He loves us, but I think that He's lonely.  Don't you think that He would love the kind of time and attention that we give to the retail stores?  We are willing to spend hours pouring over the newspaper ads and computers looking for the best price for our next purchase.  Then we are willing to drive for miles to pick it up just to fight crowds who have all done the same.  How much time have you spent standing in line at a cash register this Christmas season?  Does it compare to the time that you've spent teaching your children about their Savior or in quiet fellowship with Jesus?  If we compare the benefits and joy in shopping and gift giving to the benefits and joy in Jesus maybe we'd change our priorities slightly.

Our lives would be richer and therefore so would our country and not one dollar has to change hands.