Ring Out the Old

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

Thoughts for New Years Eve

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man."

~Benjamin Franklin

It's Not About Just Us

Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves."

~ Eric Sevareid (1912-1992), American newscaster.

Christmas Spirit

"I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month."

~ Harlan Miller

Conspiracy of Love

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love."

~ Hamilton Wright Mabie (1845-1916), American author, essayist and critic.

Christmas Day

"I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year. And thus I drift along into the holidays--let them overtake me unexpectedly--waking up some fine morning and suddenly saying to myself: 'Why this is Christmas Day!'"

~ Ray Stannard Baker, pseud. David Grayson (1870-1946), American author, journalist.

Honor Christmas

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."

~ Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English author. From 'A Christmas Carol'.

Post-Christmas Prayer

"Long after the angels disappear into the heavens, the shepherds return to their flocks, the magi journey home and the great star sets, Jesus remains.

The Child in whom we rediscover God’s great love for humanity becomes the adult Redeemer who challenges us to imitate his selflessness and compassion in order that we might transform our world in love…

May we allow the miracle of Christmas to continue long after the holiday trappings have been packed away;

May we welcome the adult Messiah and his challenging Gospel to recreate our lives, making the peace, justice and hope of this holy season a reality in every season of the new year."

~ Post-Christmas Prayer: CONNECTIONS, Jan.1, ‘95

Christmas Is...

To the American People: Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.

~ Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) American president
Presidential message (December 25, 1927).

Christmas

"Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord."

~ Luke 2:11

Holy Night

Eternal God, this holy night is radiant with the brilliance of your one true light. May that light illuminate our hearts and shine in our words and deeds. May the hope, the peace, the joy, and the love represented by the birth in Bethlehem this night fill our lives and become part of all that we say and do. May we share the divine life of your son Jesus Christ, even as he humbled himself to share our humanity. Amen.

~ Rev. Richard J. Fairchild

Christmas Eve Prayer

"Give us, O God, the vision which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure.

Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness.

Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts.

And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace."

~ Frank Borman, Apollo 8 space mission, 1968

Tell the Christmas Story

I truly believe that if we keep telling the Christmas story, singing the Christmas songs, and living the Christmas spirit, we can bring joy and happiness and peace to this world."

~ Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993), American Protestant religious leader, author.

Share Our Blessings

Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it 'white'."

~ Bing Crosby (1904-1977), American singer and film actor.

The Magic of Christmas

The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others' burdens, easing other's loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas."

~ W. C. Jones

The Message of Christmas

This is the message of Christmas: We are never alone."

~ Taylor Caldwell (1900-1985), English novelist.

Christmas means a little bit more

Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more."

~ Dr. Seuss (1904-1991), American author of children's books. From 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas'.

Christmas is...

Christmas, my child, is love in action."

~ Dale Evans (1912-2001), American film actress, singer and songwriter. Wife of Roy Rogers.

Remember the Birthday of the King

"The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birthday of our Savior, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected."

~ Samuel Johnson

Best Time to be a Child

"It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself."

~ Charles Dickens

Truth of Christmas

"If I could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: 'God with us.'We tend to focus our attention at Christmas on the infancy of Christ. The greater truth of the holiday is His deity. More astonishing than the baby in the manger is the truth that this promised baby is the omnipotent Creator of the heavens and the earth."

~ John F. MacArthur, Jr.

Act Christmas

"It is easy to think Christmas,
and it is easy to believe Christmas,
but it is hard to act Christmas."

~ Anonymous

Christmas Thoughts

"It’s sharing your gifts, not purchasing gifts;
It’s not wrapping presents, its being present
and wrapping your arms around the ones you love;
It’s not getting Christmas cards out on time,
It’s sending any card, anytime, at the right time;
It’s not having the biggest and best Christmas light display,
It’s displaying the Christ light that comes from your heart;
It’s not Santa coming down the chimney,
It’s Jesus coming down from heaven,
and giving us the gift of eternal life."

~ Anonymous

Let Me Not Keep Christmas

"Let me not wrap, stack, box, bag, tie, tag, bundle, seal, keep Christmas.

Christmas kept is liable to mold.

Let me give Christmas away, unwrapped, by exuberant armfuls. Let me share, dance, live Christmas unpretentiously, merrily, responsibly with overflowing hands, tireless steps and sparkling eyes.

Christmas given away will stay fresh—even until it comes again."

~ Linda Felver (A Book of Christmas, p. 48)

Christmas is for Adults

"The real reason for celebrating Christmas is that it happened once. And that one time changed the world. The infant born that first Christmas grew in wisdom and age and strength; he suffered and died and rose again; and he saved his people from their sins.

"This saving feast, for once and for all, has given birth to a special child who becomes the model and pattern for our human growth and wholeness. The real secret of Christmas—if we must treat it as a secret—is that the feast is for…adults!"

~ William Freburger, The Secret of Christmas

Idea of Christmas

"My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?"

~ Bob Hope, American film actor and comedian.

Opportunities for Charity

During Advent opportunities for works of charity abound calling out for Christians from every side: a sack of food for a needy family, money dropped in a Salvation Army kettle, a donation to an Indian school, a toy for 'Toys-for-Tots,' etc. Unfortunately, these works of charity so easily can assuage the Christian conscience, while doing nothing to being about a solution to the root causes of the problem.

~ Brian Cavanaugh

Christmas gift suggestions

Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect."

~ Oren Arnold

During this Advent Season...

During this Advent season as we celebrate the new relationship between God and his people, may that be mirrored in our renewed relationships with spouses, children, family and those near and dear to us. May we speak tenderly to each other amidst all the rush of the season and transform the shopping days till Christmas into the true Advent of Christ.

~ Casely Essamuah

Where Christmas is Found

Remember, if Christmas isn't found in your heart, you won't find it under a tree."

~ Charlotte Carpenter

Picture of Advent

A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes... and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Discipline Should be Administered...

Threatening our children or employees is evidence of a lack of true authority. The rewards and penalties should already be clear, and if there is disobedience, discipline should be administered the first time, not further threatening. If we have to threaten to compel our children or anyone else that we are in charge of to obey us, then somehow it has already been established that our "yes" did not really mean "yes," and our "no" did not really mean "no."

~ Rick Joyner

How Do You Use Your Blessings?

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.

~ W.T. Purkiser

Gratitude...

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

~ Melody Beattie

86,400 Seconds

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?"

~ William A. Ward

Always Thank God

But whether we have less or more,
Always thank we God therefor.

~ Author Unknown

Express Gratitude

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

~ William Arthur Ward

Hospitality of God

If I have enjoyed the hospitality of the Host of this universe, Who daily spreads a table in my sight, surely I cannot do less than acknowledge my dependence.

~ G.A. Johnston Ross

Thankless or Thankful?

It is literally true, as the thankless say, that they have nothing to be thankful for. He who sits by the fire, thankless for the fire, is just as if he had no fire. Nothing is possessed save in appreciation, of which thankfulness is the indispensable ingredient. But a thankful heart hath a continual feast.

~ W.J. Cameron

Much Has Been Given...

Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.

~ Theodore Roosevelt

The Unthankful Heart...

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!

~ Henry Ward Beecher