I think we would all agree that the essence of Christmas is giving. We are celebrating God fulfilling all the prophetic messages of the giving of His Son as the sacrificial Lamb for the sins of humanity. John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For those of us in ministry, that is the biblical message we share every year at Christmas.
For most pastors, the Christmas Season seems to call for us giving an inordinate amount of time to the church with parties, dinner invitations, multiple performances of Christmas pageants, Christmas Eve service(s) and along with this, there are regular hospital visits, weddings, funerals, and sermon preparation. It makes me tired just thinking about all the giving of ourselves and the time needed to fulfill all of these expected services.
Then the long-awaited day arrives, and we have nothing or almost nothing, left of ourselves to give our family. We have just given all we have to give and our family is left with leftovers. Don’t let this happen!
There are always good things to say “yes” to in ministry. But if we say “yes” to every good opportunity in ministry, we have no time or energy left to say “yes” to the best things. Doesn’t your family deserve you saying “no” to some good things so you can say “yes” to them? You may be losing a blessing by having none of yourself left to give your family at Christmas. Or even worse, you may be losing your family.
This coming year, make your family a priority!
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