Making Christmas Meaningful

How are you doi...

What's that? Oh, the topic. Yeah, um... about that. Yes, yes, I know, we just got through Halloween and barely are past the Election, but yes, we actually are going to talk about Christmas.

Ok, ok, simmer down. I hear you. I suspect by your complaining you are like me: no "Christmas" stuff until AFTER Thanksgiving.

Now, perhaps I'm wrong and you are of the I-listen-to-Christmas-music-beginning-in-August crowd, but I'm a fairly strict "no Christmas" kind-of-guy until I've had Turkey Thursday and spent the day with family thanking God for all He's given. Then on "Black Friday" I whip out Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God" Christmas album as my family makes the annual trek to cut down a Christmas tree.

I've taken a bit of the same approach at Riverwood. We talk about Christmas during the season of Advent, but not before (excluding Operation Christmas Child). If you've been part of the Riverwood family for more than a year, you've probably figured this out. For the past two years, we've talked about the four tenets of Advent Conspiracy.

But as I talked with Christine Blessing (who edits these blogs) about upcoming plans for the future, it didn't make sense to wait until December to talk about Advent Conspiracy when many of you will possibly have already begun your Christmas shopping.

And so, I want to be proactive and influence your Christmas purchases & choices ahead of time. And to do that, I want to talk about Christmas a month earlier than I normally do.

But why talk about the four tenets of Advent Conspiracy yet again? I'll let the Advent Conspiracy team tell you:

"Advent Conspiracy isn’t a formula or strict set of rules; it is about reorienting our hearts back to Christ. It’s about letting go of traditions that actually take our focus away from God during Christmas. Things like overstuffed schedules, credit card debt, stress, and dread that have replaced the hope and peace the angels speak of."

So, even though we've barely gotten the political ads out of our mailboxes before the Christmas catalogs start to appear, we are going to talk about Christmas to proactively make this Christmas incredibly meaningful. So join me next week right here as we dive into the first of the four Advent Conspiracy tenets - Spend Less.