Today I want to make a very brief Christmas message of sorts.
Christmas is coming up next week. I’m going to keep this episode relatively short and just maybe give you one action item that you might consider going into the end of the year with some friends and family.
But I want to encourage you to try to keep the reason for the season in your mind, so Christmas is a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But the reality is that the whole point of Christmas is to recognize the birth of Christ. So, in Luke two 11, it says, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord.
Now I don’t believe that Jesus Christ was born on December 25th, but that’s a conversation for another day. But it is the day we celebrate it. We recognize it, which I’m totally cool with. Like a lot of times our kids would have birthdays that fall, in the middle of the week, but we’re working in school and such to us and we’d have the party kind of on the weekend. Well, the day we had the party, we were celebrating their birth, but it wasn’t on their birthday, same idea here.
But the reality is we might not know the exact date he came, but we do know that he came. We do know that he died, and we know the reason why he came, he came to be a savior.
He came to give his life to save us from our sins, to save us from hell, to give us forgiveness of sins and to give us eternal life where we can live with him. So, Christ says that. We can have eternal life. We can live with them forever, but you must receive him. You must be born again.
A lot of people think that you’re just immediately a child of God. But the Bible says in John 1: 12, But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
So, I’d encourage you, if you don’t know what that means, if you don’t know what it means to be saved or born again, ask a friend, ask a family member that ask a Baptist. Not that you have to become a Baptist, but hopefully they’ll be able to give you the answers from the scriptures so that too that you are saved, you’re born again, you’re on your way to heaven.
But not only is the end of the year a time to remember Christ and his birth and why he came, but it’s also the culmination of a year. It’s a good time to stop and reflect on what you’ve accomplished this year. What went well, maybe what didn’t go so well and what you can learn from it and be thankful for the things that you have in your life.
A lot of people spend a lot of time with friends and family towards the end of the year church. work, potlucks, things like that, family, and friend gatherings, if you just look around that room when you’re there, that’s probably what matters the most in your life. We get hung up with, obviously we talk about money on this show.
We talk about, health on other shows and all this stuff. But the reality is that it’s the people. The relationships you have that are really the most valuable things. That’s what true wealth is, true wealth is the valuable things in life that money can’t buy.
While you’re with your friends and family, just take time to be thankful for them. Tell them how thankful you are for their relationship.
And here’s a micro action for the week in a lot of households. For some reason, money is a taboo topic. And honestly, I don’t really know why but it is. But I’d encourage you as you maybe get around some friends and family, especially on the family side of things, maybe try to open up that door a little bit and have a money conversation.
If you’re a younger person and you’re, you’re meeting with your, your parents, your grandparents, maybe try to ask them. Hey, what are some things that you could go back and do, learning opportunity or, Hey I’ve been learning a little bit about state planning. Can you tell me what your plan is?
Things like that.
If you’re an older person might be a good time to start having those conversations to kind of, bring the next generation along.
Honestly, they don’t know it fully yet. Maybe they will if they listened to this show, but I have teed up with, with my wife and my adult kids, a handful of various serious money conversations for the end of the year.
And you might say, that’s a horrible time to talk about it, but maybe, but when is the right time to talk about it? When is a good time to talk about it? For me, it’s a something I want to do in person. It’s, it’s something I want to be able to, to do.
I want to flush out, some plans that we have and help inform them and help them see what they might need with information that they might need. That’s what we’re going to have for us is just a tabletop conversation about some things in case, something happens to me, or something happens to Erica and a couple other aspects of we have in our, in our lives.
So, try the best you can don’t turn into an awkward thing, but if you’ve never had any conversations, obviously us and our kids have had lots of them along the way, but maybe just try to open that door a little bit and just try to. Try to glean some lessons, try to have some conversations, and just try to maybe, collectively, , push the ball down the field a little bit.
But, if I don’t get a chance to talk to you again before Christmas, Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, thanks again for being a listener here. Hope this show’s helpful for you, and until next time, hope you have a great day.
