As I sit quietly on this Thanksgiving morning while my family sleeps, I begin thinking about this holiday season. This is the first Thanksgiving in 16 years that we haven't spent in Kentucky with my in-laws. Between Wayne's work and the messy road conditions of travel yesterday, we opted to stay in Alabama and have thanksgiving with my family.
My mind now forwards to tomorrow and all the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping that begins for many, or at least it has been that way for me the last 16 years. Many of those day after Thanksgiving mornings, my sister in law and I would scurry out the door well before dawn in order to get those fabulous "door busters" the commercials advertise "we don't want to miss".
But as you can tell, this year is going to be a little different. Not just in the fact that we aren't in Kentucky, but in the fact that I'm not heading out in the frigid morning air to collect on the biggest deal. I want Christmas to be a little more simplified beginning this year.
We often run ourselves in the ground shopping for our kids and loved ones exactly what they want...a pair of Beats by Dr. Dre, a laptop, a pair of Uggs, a composite bat, a gymnastics mat, an iPad, to name a few. It would be easy to drop $1000 on each child in about 2 hours but is that the message I want to send to them?
As I was talking to a friend yesterday about all of this, she shared a story with me that "stuck". She said she remembers always getting chocolate covered cherries and a new pack of underwear from her grandfather and at the time, she wasn't all that appreciative mainly because she hated chocolate covered cherries! But that memory stuck out in her mind more than any other gift she was given every Christmas. "It was simple but I knew it was all he could do so I always thanked him," she said.
So why is it we feel as if we need to go take out a loan to give our kids the best of the best? Have you ever thought we might be the ones who are setting them up for failure in their adulthood? Am I teaching my girls to expect their future husbands to give them the best of the best when they get married because their parents tried to? Do they think they will have to have top of the line name brand things when they enter the working world on entry-level salaries?
I've heard, and I've even said, "I want better for my kids than I had" but what was wrong with what I had? Looking back, I had a pretty amazing childhood and turned out to be okay as an adult.
Maybe it's time to scale back on all the spending this Christmas. Maybe it's time to consider the homeless man that will spend his Christmas on the street struggling to keep warm with no blood relative around. Maybe it's time to be content with what little we do get instead of being disappointed in what we don't!
I think Jesus would drop His head and weep at the sight of what we've turned Christmas in to...a "wish list" where we expect most of what we've "wished" for.
By all means, please don't think I've turned in to Scrooge, because this is my favorite holiday season of all but I think we've lost perspective of what Christmas is all about!
Peace.
