Christmas is time when we gather with our families and celebrate the season we look forward to all year long. During the Christmas season, we try harder to find the time to spend with the people we love. We set aside our differences, and we try our best to get along with each other so we can enjoy the most wonderful time of the year.

There are many different kinds of families, and all of our families look different on the outside. However, our families have one very important characteristic in common. We love each other. We all show our love for our families in different ways. How we choose to show our love for our families is not that important. What is important is that we all know that we love each other, accept each other, and have each other’s best interest at heart.

The holidays can be a stressful time for all of us, and sometimes that stress causes us to experience friction with people in our families. We try hard to give everyone equal attention, but it seems that many times people feel slighted and feel that they did not get as much time as someone else. When we feel like we are not getting what we need from someone, we often lash out at them. When we do this the peace and harmony that we are supposed to feel at Christmas is overshadowed, and our gatherings become something that we dread instead of something that we look forward to.

God has called all of us to accept each other. Sure, there are things that others may do that irritate us, but we should always do our best to overlook one another’s faults. Think about it like this. We all have faults. We all do and say things that we should not do or say, and God overlooks them and loves us anyway. If God can do that for us, shouldn’t we do the same for the people we love? Sometimes it is hard to do, but it can be done. It can be done by letting go of the expectations that we all have. We have to realize that the people we love are not perfect, but we have to accept them for their imperfections and love them anyway. More times than not their behavior has nothing to do with us. It has everything to do with how they feel about themselves. If we can remember that, it will make it so much easier for us to overlook the little things that typically irritate us.

The most important thing is that we all are able to be together and enjoy each others’ company. We can do that even if we do not agree with each other 100 percent of the time. When we choose to give people the benefit of the doubt, we have more peace in our lives. When we refuse to believe that someone’s actions is a direct reflection on us, we can easily let things go. When we accept people without trying to change them, it will be easier to get along with them. Christmas is a time of joy and peace. We all know that, and we all strive to make that happen. Christmas should be a time that we enjoy gathering with our families. It should not be something that we dread. The only person we can control is ourselves, so if we go into a family gathering remembering that, it really will not matter what someone else does because we will still have peace. Satan wants to destroy our peace all the time, but particularly at Christmas. We all have to stand firm and be ready to fight off the urge to get angry or get our feelings hurt. Living in peace in harmony is something we should strive to do every single day.

When we have peace in our hearts and on our minds, we can withstand any irritation that may come our way, and when others see the peace we have, it will help them to have more peace in their lives. Peace is the key to a happy family, and peace will help all of us enjoy each others’ company more than we ever have before. So, when you gather with your family this year, have peace in your heart and on your mind, because PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~

Here are a few pictures of the people that I will be spending Christmas with this year.