As Christians, we know God is our ultimate source of provision. For many, the past few years have been a season of shrinking: shrinking incomes, shrinking jobs, shrinking retirement accounts, shrinking consumer confidence, and—as any pastor can tell you—shrinking giving. And where giving is concerned, certainly no one is happy about a decline. Pastors nationwide are …
As Christians, we know God is our ultimate source of provision. Yet even as the job market has picked up in 2012, many of us—employed or not—continue to feel a pocketbook pinch from $4-a-gallon gas, upside-down mortgages and a general increase in cost-of-living expenses. For many, the past few years have been a season of …
I grew up with Santa
Claus, and I’m guessing you probably did too. I still remember the sad day when
I learned from some really mean kids on the playground that there was no jolly
man in a red velvet suit putting dolls and Michael Jackson records under the
Christmas tree. And there were no elves to manufacture the Atari game system,
over which Santa received many, many pleading letters. Oh, the horror. It was
the grownups the whole time.
But even when that chapter
of Christmas magic finally closed, one Christmas myth persisted in my family
and in my own experience well into adulthood: the debt fairies.
The debt fairies are
a mythical creation with far more impact than Santa. Their legend goes
something like this: Because it’s Christmas, you can charge whatever you want
and it’s going to be OK. After all, you’re celebrating Jesus’ birthday.
Heard that one
before?
Don’t allow gift-giving expectations to put you deeper in debt and rob you of the true joy of the season
I know what you’re thinking: Here they come. Thanksgiving,
Christmas and New Year’s; gifts to buy, meals to prepare, decorating,
houseguests, parties to attend, church activities, neighborhood events,
school productions—and a partridge in a pear tree.
It’s
exhausting, isn’t it? Add the fact that the last few years have been
financially disappointing for most of us, and it’s no wonder we get a
heavy feeling in the pit of our stomachs when the calendar page flips
over to November.
Life is about to get a lot more expensive, as if it
hasn’t been bad enough this year already. As Christians, we tend to feel
guilty just thinking about the price tag that comes along with the
Thanksgiving and Christmas season.
Don’t allow gift-giving expectations to put you deeper in debt and rob you of the true joy of the season I know what you’re thinking: Here they come. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s; gifts to buy, meals to prepare, decorating, houseguests, parties to attend, church activities, neighborhood events, school productions—and a partridge in a pear tree. It’s exhausting, isn’t …
Don’t allow gift-giving expectations to put you deeper in debt and rob you of the true joy of the season
I know what you’re thinking: Here they come. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s; gifts to buy, meals to prepare, decorating, houseguests, parties to attend, church activities, neighborhood events, school productions—and a partridge in a pear tree.
It’s exhausting, isn’t it? Add the fact that the last few years have been financially disappointing for most of us, and it’s no wonder we get a heavy feeling in the pit of our stomachs when the calendar page flips over to November.
