Shifting Perspective

You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Acts 20:35

Several years ago Aaron and I began incorporating random acts of kindness into our family’s Advent traditions. It started as a conversation between Kendra, Kristin, and me at a local coffee shop one fall weekend afternoon. We were complaining about how our culture’s commercial view of Christmas was impacting our children’s attitudes in a way that we didn’t like and didn’t want to promote. At some point, our conversation switched from complaining to discussing how to take back the sacredness of the Christmas season. We walked out of the coffee shop that afternoon with the rough framework for Advent acts of kindness and have been refining what it looks like for our individual families every year since.

For my family, it began with a perspective shift about what Christmas is and what it is not. I began talking with my young children about Christmas in terms of Jesus’ birthday—because it’s true and also because my kids already understood that we give presents instead of receiving presents on someone else’s birthday. As part of the explanation, we scaled back (significantly) the celebration of Christmas when it came to presents under the tree and scaled up the kindness and giving we do at Christmastime. When Christmas was explained in terms of birthday celebrations, our kids went along with our perspective shift from getting to giving without complaint.

We try to have only three or four gifts under the tree for each child on Christmas morning. We’ll tuck a few small things into their stockings, but that’s it. Christmas morning is still a magical time in our household, and honestly, none of us have missed the extra gifts.

This simple change in perspective has helped us shift Christmas from a season of getting to a season of giving. As we’ve given, we’ve found ourselves blessed beyond measure by the people we’ve met, the stories we’ve heard, and by how God has worked through us to accomplish his will.

—Julie

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

As you begin planning what the Christmas season will look like for your family this year, consider how you can tangibly realign the focus away from getting and onto giving.

From the book