Christmas is the Good News!

I hope your Christmas celebration filled you with joy, love, and hope. But it doesn't have to end because December 25th has passed. As a matter of fact, for busy parents today and the next week may be the best time to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. The shopping, cooking, delivering, opening, etc. are all done and now is the perfect time to read the Christmas story in Luke, or go back through the Christmas posts here on Good News! and take more time to let the meaning sink in, or just take some time to ponder on all that Christmas means.

The birth of Jesus Christ is the best news that ever was. After all, He is The Good News! and the more we ponder and think about that, the better life becomes.

Have a great day!

May Be

Provo River last spring. No green today, but just as peaceful.

I went for a long walk today along the Provo River.

 Sunshine and blue skies made it the perfect day for reflecting and pondering. 

I took a notebook along and stopped for awhile to write out some thoughts. 

The thoughts turned out to be very random and mostly sentimental, 

but one has stuck with me: 

The word maybe is used in place of perhaps 

without stopping to realize that may 

is permission to be.

I'm going to keep pondering that.

Pondering Christmas

I put my Christmas tree up while some of the grandchildren were here to help me. I’m not big into decorating, but one of the things I love about having a Christmas tree is it gives me a special place to sit and contemplate the real meaning of Christmas. Our tree isn’t beautiful—it’s more a conglomeration of memories and children’s art work. We usually buy a new Christmas ornament during the year to remind us of something special that happened during that year. We’ve been married for 42 years so that means a lot of ornaments and memories!

I turn off the room lights, turn on the tree lights, and cuddle into my favorite comforter on the couch and savor all the memories that are filled with love and hope and faith. But besides memories, many of those ornaments are nativity scenes or other things directly related to the Savior and His birth. The pondering session always eventually takes me to the manger in the stable and the glorious event that occurred there.

There is so much to do, especially for mothers, at Christmas time. But don’t forget to stop and enjoy and remember what it is all about. All that is good comes from Jesus Christ. Without that birth in that stable, you and I would not have any beautiful, wonderful memories to contemplate.