Lost the Christmas Joy?

So Christmas is around the corner and all the hustle and bustle is upon us. Yet, some have lost that Christmas cheer! It's become a chore to get out the door, let alone be happy about the Christmas season! It's a great day and friends, family, food but that joy seems to be lost somewhere in the flood of decorations that are everywhere ! You can't walk into a store without seeing something of Christmas, stocking and Santa !

Yet, the blues have settled into your heart and there. Is just no more room for all that Christmas joy! All you want is to get through the days and make it into the next year, cause good things will be there in the days to come. So can we just skip all the joy and move right on to the new year?

Sadly, no! We have to go to mass and church and hear about the joy and the true gift of Christmas! We go back to God in theses times when all our joy is lost to find hope once again! It is in Christ that we have hope, live and true joy! All others are superficial and will let you down. Any other joy is just a temporary fix and will fade! Yet that joy from the Lord is always present. It's there when you are blue, green or any other color. It tends to be masked by things of the world when we are caught up in everything but God ! When we lose sight of Him and who we are in Him that our joy tends to fade and we focus solely on worldly things!

We children of the Lord we are able to have the security and the love of the Lord; along with His joy at all times in our lives. We know that His live and guidance will help us through all circumstances when we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel! His light is there and if we reach out and take His hand he will guide us to that never ending love and joy that only He can give! It's a joy and love that will guide you through all things.

So as we walk into this Christmas season we are able to reach out and find the hand of God there waiting to show you the joy of the season. More the. Giving and receiving gifts, rather the joy of the the Lord in the birth of Jesus! In Him we have love and joy that will never cease if we are willing to reach out and take His hand to walk with Him this Christmas season.

Words

Inside all of us is a spirit. We all have one, and we all have some sort of spiritual life that resides in us; no matter if we attend church daily, weekly, monthly or just a couple of times a year. We all have the same spirit that the Lord breathed into Adam when he formed him out of dust. We have a spirit that is given to us by the Father in heaven. When we are baptised and begin to walk with God, it is in those little moments that our Spirit become alive and active in us. It is now that it longs to be fed.

We continue to walk with God, our Spirit grows and we grow in christ. We fed that Spirit within by attending church and learning about Jesus and His ways. We continue to grow through things in the church like prayer and Bible study. Yet, what we often don't realize is that the we are also fed by the words that we hear on the radio, friends / family members, tv and any other sources that we tend to listen to during the day. Our spirit is affected by what we listen to and what is being spoken to us.

Yet, these words are vital to that spirit, and what we are surrounding ourselves with it also holds a lot of power in our lives. Words that are spoken can hurt and wound us deeply. They are able to strike deeper and sharper then any sword or spear could ever imigine to go. These same worlds are there and are able to bring us great Love and joy from Heaven. There is a love that we are freely given by Jesus and all we have to do is ask for it and He is willing to show it to all of us because of His death on the cross.

Our Spirit that we hold within us is one that is very fragile. It wounds easily by words and actions of others. We can be hurt by someone saying something mean or out of context and then the wound forms and bleeds within us. It is in these moments that we long for the affirmation that someone out there care and does love us for who we are, not because of what we do or have done. The spirit man is gentle, and is one who needs to be uplifted in Church or by those who we are in constant contact with on a daily basis.

So the question become who are you listening to and what are they saying to you. Is it Godly things that are to lift ones spirit. Are we around people who love and care for us like family or are we around those who are dragging us down slowly to be miserable. Misery does love company after all. Look at who and what is said to you and around you, then question is this what my Spirit needs to hear, or can I find another to talk to who will lift me up and help that fragile Spirit heal and grow daily.

Sea of Love

Love is a mighty splendid thing. It is a wonderful emotion that is vital to our very existence. It is the thing that keeps us going when times get hard, it is that thing that gives us warm fuzzies inside when it happens. When we fall into that sea of love it tends to overtake all that we are, and occupies us to a whole new level. Love is that very thing we draw to when we have feeling have been hurt or someone / something has wounded our heart. Love lives within us. It is there and we chose who and when to display that love to others. Amazingly there are different kinds of love, there is the loves we have for our spouse, our children, friends, family members, church family, out priests or pastors, the teachers that our children love, or hate because they are a little tough on them to help them achieve their full potential in the classroom. Yet, we don't really think about Love that way, we know the thoughts and feeling of love, and we seem to run with it when it happens.

Yet, there is so much more to love then the simple emotion. There are the actions of love as well. That someone thinks of you often helps you when you are down because they care for you and about you. Love is there in the daycare, where you leave the children for 8 to 10 hours a day. Love is present in the nursing homes where the elderly are left and no one come to visit. The staff is there to talk to them, hold their hands, listen to their stories, and simply share life with them when they are feeling blue. Love is there in the ER when the doctors and nurses are running around to save or help the one that you love feel better, or if one passes they are there to help you grieve, bring you resource to help you deal with the death of a loved one that is unexpected, they listen, they care for you and all that has just happened. They are there because not only do they love to help others, but they are also a source of support and a listening ear when things go wrong. There is love that is happening in rehab home as those who are there are struggling to learn or relearn skills. The staff are there to rejoice with them when small steps are going right and there is an improvement, it may be a small one that is easily overlooked, but to the individual it is amazing, and staff understand that and rejoice with them.

There is love in the supermarkets, the Target stores, the Wal-Marts, Kohls and any other business that one may go to on a daily basis for work. There is a sense of family that is able to develop around you with co-workers. We start to develop friendships at work. There are people we like to talk to when things go wrong, others we can tell anything too, and some we like to shop with or go out with at the end of the night. In it all there is a friendship that forms and binds us to one another and at the center of it is Love. Love is there when we worry about a co-worker is not coming to work, and we are not sure what has happened to them. We have a bond with those individuals that tend to go a little deeper then just a person we work with, when essential we come to care and love them as a part of a extended family. We may not celebrate holidays with them but yet we care for them and worry about them if something is going wrong in their lives and all seems to be crashing down around them.

Although, at the center of all love is God. He is love, he shows us His love by dying on the cross and taking all the sins that we have ever committed or could ever conceive of committing and wipes our slate clean. He loves us with an love that there is no other love that is able to compare to it. It is a love that is always present in us, we know that God cares and loves us on a daily basis, and that there is no way we can earn that love. Rather, His love is freely give to all those who are willing to accept Him and walk with Him, talk to Him through prayer. We are able to run to Him in our times of need and never, ever will He call us needy, or childish! He is there waiting and wanting to shower us with His love is we go to Him. We are able to learn about Him through reading and worshiping Him in our homes, along with attending mass / church on Sunday morning. If we are truly lucky we are able to attend church or mass more so we are able to commune with Him on a more intimate level. By growing in God and in His Love we are able to reach out to other and show them the Love of Christ through our action, our words and by just being a Child of God in these hard times. We have the opportunity to love and be loved by the Father in Heaven, why not accept the free gift that he offers us and walk in His love daily.

Family Hurts

We would go yearly to some of the relatives house that we would not see very often for one reason or another. As a child we never really questions why we did or did not see certain family members, know that our parents knew best. That the underlying reasons that we did not visit, were know in some realm, yet never spoken aloud for any reason. That it was hush, hush, and that is just the way that it has to be right now, you will understand why when you are older. Yet, we grow older and never really ask the questions of why we don't really associate with certain family or visit them as often as others. It is just the family dynamics and that is it.

In reality though, there is so much more going on then we really want to acknowledge. As we venture further into our lives, and relationships become complicated and busy we tend to forget, or push things aside that are not in our lives at the moment. Even if it means walking away from certain family members, or not communicating with them. Yet, we know they are our family, we just are not that close to them and we really are not sure why, other then we just don't know them all that well, and with all the business in our lives who has time for another realtionship right now?

Yet, there is so many reasons under the lost relationships in our lives, whether it be family or friends. There can be a deep hurt, or something so small at the time that we have allowed to grow into so much more that now we have forgotten why we were even mad at them for in the first place. Yet, to put those things behind us is so hard, and to ask them for forgiveness for the wrong doing even if it isn't our fault is just beyond our comprehension! Since they should be the one to say sorry, they did me wrong! Yet as a Christian and a follower of Christ we are to forgive them, even if we did no wrong. By opening that door up and saying simply "I'm sorry for hurting you" By doing this, you are able to free yourself from the burden of the judgment on the other person, and you are able to touch them with the love of Christ. By letting go and allowing that relationship to now grow in Christ you will see how He can transform that hurt and pain into joy along with freedom.

There is so much power in forgiveness. Especially if it is in ones own family. By telling them other member that you now forgive them for holding that grudge, or pain that they have inflicted upon us. We are able to free them from that burden as well and us being free in Christ. We are able to see that person in a new light, one of Love and we are now able to love them as Christ would want us to love them. We are able to help them heal the hurts that are deep within them, by opening those doors of communication not only with you but with the Father in heaven. We are able to show them that by forgiving them, and allowing that wound to close, we are able to find freedom in Christ that we may not have experienced in the past. A freedom that allows you grow and go deeper with God. We are allowing God to work through us on a level that we may not realize, because we have finally let go of that hurt and grudge. As a Christian we are able to show others the true Love of Christ by simply forgiving them.

Where do you run?

There are some of us that talk to others, some that turn to friends, others that run to the church, pastors and priests and then there are some that are more comfortable bearing their souls to a total stranger, an outsider, a therapist. All are acceptable in a time of needm and we all need to have someone, somewhere that we are able to run in those times in our lives that we are struggling with personal, interpersonal or just stuff that is happening in our lives, We all have to have a refuge that we can bear the hurts, pains and wounds that we carry deep within us that many do not know that they even exist.

As humans we need to have someone that can talk to us and listen, really listen to what we are saying and not judge us by what we are feeling or thinking at that moment. We need to feel safe bearing our souls to someone when we are in need, or have pain deep within us, espicially when it is willing and coming to the surface. At these times it can be hard to see options, or think that anyone has ever been in this place where we sit in the midst of all the pain, and open wounds that are bleeding and we try as we may to cover them but just can't seem to get that bleeding to stop. It is in those moments that we tend to run to others that we trust or look for someone out there in the world that we feel safe with to share all that is within us at that moment. Someone who is willing to explore those thoughts and feelings, or look at the pain and what is happening in another light, someone who is there for us in the time of our need.

We all have these times in our lives, some have more than others, but we all go through tough and trying times in life. As Christians we have the ultimate comfortator there willing and want to help if we just reach out to him. As a Christian we have Jesus there at our calling, we can reach up to heaven and have Him come down to us and hold us in a time of need, He is there listening, and won't judge you for what you are feeling. He is there to wipe away all the tears, and will always be near. His love is never ending and he is always awake so it doesn't matter if it is 2 in the afternoon or four o'clock in the morning. Jesus does not sleep, and never see's his children as a bother or a problem. He is there waiting for you to call out to Him.

Yet, sometimes we reach out and still feel that we need more, that we need a human here on earth to talk to, it is then that we run to the church. We turn to the priest, a pastor, a leader in the church. We seek out someone that will understand what we are going through and can help us see God is there with us in the middle of the storm that we are in at the moment. We reach out and see that there is love here for us in the church, that God's love is all around us in the church. That the priest have a true heart for the people and that when we are hurting, they too feel the pain that we bear in our souls. They see us and love us as their family, so when we hide all our pain and hurts, it is then that we are hurtung our spiritual leaders as well. They are there for the church, but more importantly they are there for the people. They truly care for us as the members of the church. They love and care for us as their family, and want us to call them in the times of need, and not to run and hide in the back of the church or the fake smile on Sunday morning. I am sure they don't want us calling them at 3am, unless it is an emergency, but knowing several pastors and priests over the years, I know they want us to call them in the am if we need to talk and are struggling with finding or seeing God work in us, through us or simply knowing that God is still there and has not walked away from us when we are in need, pain and misery.

They are there to walk with us, guide us and help us walk with the heavenly father. The priest / pastors are there reaching out and asking that we call then when our faith is weak, and we are climbing out of the lowly pit that we may be in and can't seem to be able to grasp that rock to pull ourselves up off the floor. They are there reaching their hand down, saying grab ahold, I am here to help you my child. I am here to pray with you, show you the Father in heaven and be a shoulder you can cry on without any judgement or shame. Call me and I will help you, I am here for you always, just like the Father in heaven. Reach out in the times of need and you will see the love of the heavenly father reaching to you through others and through your priest / pastor of the church.

Elderly

It is amazing to me how inAmerica we place our elderly, grandparents, parents and other family members into a nursing home and then walk away. How is it that we love and cherish our families yet as we age and they age or a stroke happens that we somehow let go of them and our emotional ties as well. That we place them there to be taken care of because we are not capable of doing it at home then justify to ourselves that we dont need to visit, because they are ok and have there needs met. HOW SAD!!! What about their needs to see family, brothers, sisters, someone in the family, is it really that had to visit them? Is it the setting that scares you. Yes elderly die in the nursing homes, but they are not all on deaths door. Many live for many, many years there before coming even close to death. What is worse is when we place young people there because their is no other option for their care, and never visit because life is too busy. Yet prior to their moving the the nursing home environment the family and friends would find the time to call and visit, so why does the relationship change when the walls that surround them changes?