How Much Longer?

How long will you leave your Christmas lights up?
When will your decorations go back in their boxes?
How soon will family leave and get back to normal routine?
Did it take long to clean up all the wrapping paper, gift bags and tissue paper?
How quickly were the leftovers gone and the dishes done?
Do you get everything Christmas packed up and put away so you can move on with your life?

If this is our mentality, I'm so afraid that we've missed the point of Christmas altogether. I don't want the day to mean so little in my heart that it's just like any holiday of the year - because it's not.

I pray that we don't rush. I pray from the bottom of my heart and the top of my lungs that we keep Christmas going. Sure, the decorations can go back in their boxes and the lights can come down, but what's going on in our hearts is so much more important.

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. Deuteronomy 11:18-21

Are we keeping the Christmas story and its meaning before our eyes? Are we teaching them, talking about them and making them the very pillars of our home? Without Christmas, there is nothing worth talking about.

How much longer will we keep Christmas going? Dec. 25 is just a day to celebrate what's happening all year long in the life of a Christian. Jesus Christ was born so that He could die for my sins. That's not a one-day-a-year affair. That's every moment of every day of every week that passes.

And for that reason alone we should be holding on to Christmas with every ounce of our strength.

You never know - if you choose to hold on as long as you can, it could change the lives of everyone around you.

You never know - it could change your own life.

How much longer will you keep Christmas going in your heart?

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