Start With Prayer

Start with Prayer

You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy. John 16:24

How did I finally get a handle on the Christmas frenzy, especially since I was addicted to the chaos? Prayer. And the annual gift list was a great place for me to begin.

The year Karen decided to simplify, she made a list of everyone for whom she purchased gifts. At first glance, she was convinced she couldn’t cut corners there. But as she prayed with her eyes open, staring at the list, she had the idea to put the names into categories: immediate family, distant relatives, friends, and college chums. Next she circled the names of those she knew looked forward to her gifts. To her surprise, only eleven names remained: immediate family and two great-aunts. She had been buying gifts for the other two dozen merely out of habit.

The morning after Thanksgiving, she wrote twenty-four notes, gently asking to be excluded from gift exchanges and explaining she and her husband had decided to limit their own purchases. No one was hurt by her request. In fact, several expressed gratitude for her initiative.

Other friends have switched from buying for everyone on their lists to drawing names or setting per-gift spending limits.

Again, asking for suggestions from the children may lead to some wonderful ideas. I remember one family whose six-year-old watched his mother pack a box of canned goods for a needy family.

“How come we give food just at Christmas?” he asked.

The mother started to offer an explanation, then figured it would sound hollow. So instead she asked, “What would you like to do for them? Do you have any ideas?”

The first grader thought for a moment, then said, “We could surprise them during the year, too, and even take flowers for the mother’s birthday.”

By March, they had delivered three more large boxes of food along with the birthday flowers. Soon, the little guy’s mother received permission from the deacon board to set up a year-round food pantry in an unused room at their church. Numerous families were helped because of one little boy’s idea. —SANDRA

Lord, help me to take a serious look—through your eyes—at my endless must-do list. If it’s correct, give me strength to complete each item. If it’s wrong, show me what to delete.

Christmas is not a date. It is a state of mind.

—MARY ELLEN CHASE (1887–1973), TEACHER, SCHOLAR, AND WRITER