CHRISTMAS: CALL IT WHAT IT IS

This is present all year long. 

The snow in the metro-Detroit area put us in the spirit of Christmas. People seem ready, but for what?

 I don't know when it began, but Merry Christmas turned into Happy Holidays. Nativities, once plentiful, are now in front of only some churches.  

On the other hand, retailers have been pushing merchandise for Christmas under the guise of shopping for the "holidays." Everything used to be closed on Christmas Day, not anymore.

Except people are calling Christmas everything but, unless they are in Church.

It's time to change the meaning of Christmas and call it what it is: The Birth of Jesus Christ. The commercialism of Christmas is downright disgusting -- it's more like the birth of this year's bottom line. Christmas trees and ornaments are now on display in major box stores prior to Halloween (another Catholic Holy-day turned upside down) and it shoved down our throats.

In the spell of hectic and distracted living, let's remember that we are preparing for His coming and give different kinds of gifts.  

•  Let's have kind words for each other
• Say empowering things to people you see daily. A little encouragement certainly helps pep up when exhausted
• The beggar by the ramp of the expressway ... is giving a buck really gonna kill you? It's a myth about these people making a lot of money.  
• Are the beatitudes passe'?  Check out visiting the forgotten; those in psych wards who have no one, lonely soldiers in the VA Hospital, children who are in orphanages without a loving family. My mother was thrust in an orphanage at age 3 when her mama died and her father didn't want her. Can you even imagine how scary that is for a child? 

These are just some ideas. Decide what is right for you. After all the good you do comes back in spades. And say often: Merry Christmas!