PINIMAGEOver the past several days I’ve been dumbfounded by the videos from the Black Friday brawls. Many of you have seen them. I’m thinking particularly of the one where the lady rips the veggie steamer from the child’s hands. Please tell me that the veggie steamer was gold plated or held a hidden treasure worth…well worth what it would take for a person to steal it away from a little child.
Watching otherwise seemingly upstanding citizens rolling around on the floor and trampling unfortunate shoppers, screaming and yelling, wreaking havoc and utter chaos…I mourned our brokenness. Humanity is a mess. We are all, to some degree, broken.
Maybe you don’t like to think of yourself as broken. Maybe you don’t like to consider that each one of us has ugliness and sin we must come to grips with. But that’s why Jesus came. I feel the need to interject here, Jesus: The Reason for the Season.
I know myself. I’ve gotten pretty good about biting my tongue and controlling my outward behavior but like everyone else, I struggle on the inside with fear, jealousy, selfishness and more. Frankly, knowing God sees the mess in my heart and loves me so much that even while I was yet a sinner, He sent Christ to die for me (Romans 5:8), really helps me to face my brokenness and allow Him to bring me to wholeness in Him – the greatest gift I’ve ever received!
Which brings me to the idea of gift giving.
PINIMAGEIf you’re a parent, you are probably getting Christmas wish lists from your children. When I was a kid, I would go through the JCPenney and Sears catalogs (they looked like phone books) and circle all the things I wished for. These days, my kids surf the web and type out their lists. It’s funny. I have seen rough drafts lying around scrawled in pencil on notebook paper. They’ve been revised and edited. Today the final copies are laying here in front me. Forgotten things tend to get jotted at the bottom over time. It’s my job to look them over and really try to figure out which of these gifts we can afford because we obviously can’t get them all. The bottom line is, I want to warm their hearts on Christmas day. I want to see their faces light up with joy. How can I do that with a limited budget and such big dreamers?
Looking over their lists, it’s my job to figure out what we can do as parents. It’s my job to decide if a gift is a good idea or a bad one. It’s also important that I consider our budget. It can be tempting to overspend. Christmas shopping is, for many, very stressful.
I don’t like crowded stores, long lines and the stress of shopping so I figured I would try to take advantage of cyber Monday. But something interesting happened yesterday. In the quiet of my home office, given time to think and comparison shop, I couldn’t get away from God’s whisper to my heart. I would put something in my cyber cart and feel a nudge from God.
“Why are you buying this?”
Because it’s a great deal for a name brand item.
“How will this enrich your child’s life? How will it bless them?”
Uh…
I’ll get to the point. God wants us to give our children gifts. He even commends us that while we are imperfect and sinful, we still desire to give our children “good gifts”.
So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. Matt 7:11
The purpose of this post is not to guilt you for buying gifts for your children, your loved ones, etc. Trust me, I love getting gifts for the special people in my life. And God isn’t trying to guilt us either. In fact, gift giving started with God so He’s delighted when we give too.
But, I’m realizing that while I shop for gifts for my kids there are a lot of motivators for why I buy what I do – some healthy and some unhealthy. It’s the same for you.
The point of my blog is to challenge us to examine our motivation for giving so that instead of stress, we can experience the blessing of giving to others. We have the opportunity to replace any unhealthy approaches to giving – by becoming aware of why we buy – with gift giving that blesses those we love and ourselves!
What types of reasons can be unhealthy? Here are just a few.
Reasons like:
- I feel like I’m failing as a parent (friend, daughter, etc) to be completely present in my child’s (that person’s) life so I’ll make it up with material gifts.
- The kids at school put a lot of emphasis on having name brand items. I need to make sure I get my child at least a few items so they don’t get teased.
- If I don’t get them what they want, I’ll ruin their Christmas.
- We’ve always done Christmas big, even if we suffer afterward with a little debt.
- I want to make up to my kids what was stolen from me as a child.
- I haven’t stopped to consider the cost of my purchasing. I kind of shop mindlessly, but I’m getting a ton of stuff.
The list goes on.
I began to ask the question, “Why do I buy?” And believe it or not, as I dig down for the right reasons, I’m experiencing a peace of mind in my purchasing.
So let me land this plane. My message this morning is meant to bring awareness to hidden reasons behind the stress we feel in preparing for Christmas.It’s one simple thing we can do and I know it’s already made a difference for me. While you make your purchases this Christmas season, simply consider why you are buying.
With each purchase, ask the question: “Why do I buy?”
Ask the question: “Why do I buy?”
Maybe it’s time you changed your usual Christmas “modus operandi”. That’s a fancy word for method of operation. Be aware of the pitfalls. Refocus your attention on what is “good” for those you love. It may mean changing the way you buy this Christmas season.
Rethinking Christmas spending can be enhanced by adding traditions that cause you to focus on what’s most important to you and what you want your family to remember once the day has come and gone.
- Like taking on a project with your children of helping a family in your area in need.
- Or serving/volunteering in some way with the many opportunities available to bless others at Christmas.
Most importantly, ask God to help you to find new ways to express to those you love what is the greatest gift this Christmas season. It’s the reason we celebrate – Christ our Savior.
It’s December 1st and there are only 24 shopping days left until Christmas. As you head out to the store or open that web browser, make it point to ask yourself, “Why do I buy?” and be blessed this Christmas.
