The Spirit of Service at Christmas time….

This year I have been very touched by others and their kindness to us, and also others I have heard stories from.  Service at Christmas is such a wonderful thing, and even though this year we didn’t do as much as we did last year, I think the one thing we have learned is how much better life can be at home when we are serving and thinking of each other.  My kids have been wonderful examples of this since we have all been sick lately.  We have also received some very sweet gifts from friends and strangers to brighten our holiday, and feel so much gratitude in our hearts for them.    We were asked to speak in church last Sunday and I decided to talk about this subject.  I thought I would close this year off with my talk…
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Today our family was asked to talk about Christmas. We LOVE Christmas, and the spirit that it bring into our home. I have tried hard during that last few years as my kids are getting older to redirect our thoughts at Christmas time to focus on the real reason for Christmas, sure we love Santa and all he represents, but I want them to focus on what Christmas is really about.

We decided to each speak on what the spirit of Christmas is to us….I will talk about the Spirit of giving and service! I love getting presents for other people especially for my kids. Seeing their eyes light up on Christmas day when I hand them a present their dad and I picked out for them is so rewarding. Especially since birthdays and Christmas are really the only time we do this for our kids. We have a tradition of doing 25 days of Christmas fun activities each day leading up to Christmas day, Last year we decided to add 25 days of service. We mostly did small little things, for each other, our neighbors, and even for the garbage man. It was fun to see my kids get excited about putting a cart away for someone at the store, to leaving a quarter at the pay phones for someone who might need it, and take some flowers to someone in need. I remember as we participated in this activity last year and even this year that I would pray daily to know even something small that we could do to help someone. It seemed like everyday God put something in our minds that needed to be done. Small things, that we might not see as being very significant, but to others were.

Elder Eyring in an article called “How to Give Gifts to Christ” said, 

“The spirit of Christmas puts in our hearts a desire to give joy to other people. The celebration of Christmas helps us keep our promise to always remember the Lord and His gifts to us. And that remembrance creates a desire in us to give gifts to Him.

He has told us what we could give Him to bring Him joy. First, we can, out of faith in Him, give a broken heart and a contrite spirit. We can repent and make sacred covenants with Him.

Second, you can give Him the gift of doing for others what He would do for them. There is a long list of possibilities in the book of Matthew. There we read words from our Redeemer, which we all hope to hear and to speak when we see Him after this life:

“Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

“When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

“Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:37–40).

He goes on to say, “In those words the Lord makes clear what gifts we might give Him out of our gratitude. Each act of kindness to anyone becomes a kindness to Him because He loves all of Heavenly Father’s children. And because that brings joy to Him, it also brings joy to His Father, to whom we owe thanks beyond measure.

In a talk called The Spirit we Feel at Christmas by President Monson he says,

“Recently as I have reminisced concerning past Christmases I’ve realized that probably no other time of the year yields as many poignant memories as does Christmas. The Christmases we remember best generally have little to do with worldly goods, but a lot to do with families, with love, and with compassion and caring.

I think the Christmases that I remember most are the ones where we served others or someone was serving us.  We have had a couple of Christmas’s where our hearts were touched by those who served us. It is a humbling experience to open your front door to find tons of grocery bags full of necessities that we needed at that time, or the excitement of someone doing the 12 days of Christmas to your family. It is an amazing feeling to know that God is watching out for you and that he loves you. 

It is also a wonderful feeling to be able to do that for other families, and to pay it forward for the kindness others have done to you. 

President Monson goes on to say…

“As we contemplate how we are going to spend our money to buy gifts this holiday season let us plan also for how we will spend our time in order to help bring the true spirit of Christmas into the lives of others.”

I think a lot of times we worry, and we talk ourselves out of serving others at this time because maybe we don’t have the money to donate or help out a family in need. We feel like that is the only kind of service we can do. There is so much more we can do for others. Christ didn’t hand over money or presents, he talked to, he loved, he cared for, and we can do the same. 

My uncle wrote a song a few years back called “Put Christ back into Christmas” 

Here are some of the words to that song….

Children can teach us so much.  It can be a smile, a hug, an invite to your home, it doesn’t need to be something big. 

President Monson closes his talk by saying “The Savior gave freely to all. He gave us His love, His service, and His life. What is the spirit we feel at Christmastime? It is His spirit—the spirit of Christ.  Finding the real joy of the season comes not in the hurrying and the scurrying to get more done or in the purchasing of obligatory gifts. Really, joy comes as we show the love and compassion inspired by the Savior of the world, who said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matt. 25:40).

May we keep that feeling in our hearts not only at Christmas time but throughout the whole year.  I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.  I think I am going to take a week off and enjoy the time with my family and get feeling better.