Christmas – Page 19 – Family Council

Wishing You a “Johnny Cash” Christmas

Dec 9, 2013JerryChristmasChristmas

As Christmas approaches, I want to take a moment to reflect on what Christmas really means.

Country music singer-songwriter Johnny Cash wrote a poem several years ago called, “Christmas as I Knew It.” The poem describes Christmastime during the Great Depression—a Christmas that, in Cash’s words, was “kinda lean.”

The gifts his family exchanged consisted of things like a homemade hickory whistle and dresses made from empty flour sacks; Christmas dinner included a squirrel his daddy had killed, and their Christmas tree wasn’t a handsome evergreen; it was a “pigapple” tree decorated with popcorn strings.

The last few stanzas of the poem are especially interesting. Cash writes the sharecroppers across the road “didn’t have it as good as us.” He and his brother took a jar of coal oil and some hickory nuts they had collected over to the sharecropper’s porch. An old lady eased open the door and thanked the boys for the simple gifts as they left.

You would think, with things as hard as they were, Johnny Cash and his family might have felt like their Christmas wasn’t anything all that special. Instead, Cash writes, “for one of the neighbors and for us, it was a good Christmas night.”

Any more, we get bombarded with conflicting messages at Christmastime. One says, “There’s more to Christmas than buying things.” The other says, “Everything is on sale. Buy it for Christmas!” This year, I hope you and I both remember Christmas is a celebration of what God has done for us through His son, Jesus. If we remember that, no matter what’s going on, we too can have “a good Christmas night.”

May your Christmas season be truly blessed and merry.

P.S. As Christmas approaches, I know a lot of worthy causes are contacting you about making a donation to their work before the end of the year. If you value what we do at Family Council, and are able to help, I hope you will consider making a generous, tax-deductible gift of $50 before the year is out. Click here to donate today.

The Most Unlikely Christmas Dinner Guests

Dec 8, 2013JerryChristmasChristmas

Last week we wrote about the Christmas Truce of 1914—an unofficial ceasefire in which Allied and German soldiers fighting in World War I joined together to celebrate Christmas. Another similar event occurred 30 years, on Christmas Eve, 1944.

Fritz Vincken, a young boy, was spending Christmas with his mother is a cold shack in the Belgian Forest. Allied troops had invaded Normandy the previous summer, and the Battle of the Bulge was in full swing.

On this cold, winter night, Fritz said a knock came to the door. His mother opened it to find three American soldiers lost and looking for a warm place to stay. Although Fritz and his mother were German, they invited the young men inside to warm by their fire and share dinner. A short time later another knock came. Four tired German soldiers stood in the doorway, also looking for a warm place to stay.

Fritz’s mother told the German and American soldiers they all could stay in the shack on one condition: No fighting.

(more…)

Wishing You an “Andy Griffith” Christmas

Dec 7, 2013JerryChristmasChristmas

Andy Griffith passed away more than a year ago, but his memory lives on every day as his TV shows and movies are aired all over America. The iconic “Andy Griffith Show” is one most of us remember watching while growing up. The first season the show was on featured a Christmas special. In the episode, local department store owner Ben Weaver—a crusty, old curmudgeon—insists Andy jail a man over Christmas. Andy, Barney, Aunt Bee, the prisoner’s wife and children, and others end up spending Christmas Eve in the jailhouse, celebrating together.

By the end of the episode, the department store owner is so touched by how happy everyone is, he has a change of heart and joins everyone celebrating Christmas.

The episode, which is kind of a condensed-version of A Christmas Carol, may seem a little cheesy today, but it’s wholesome. I once heard a preacher say, “If you want to know how to treat people, treat them the way Andy Griffith would.”

It’s true. “Sheriff Taylor” always greeted people with a smile and made them feel welcome no matter who they were. I think most of us would like to be treated that way.

Every year it seems like this season becomes a little less jolly. Between frantic shopping sprees and busy get-togethers, it’s easy to lose sight of what we’re celebrating. This Christmas I hope we all can pause and remember the reason we have joy at Christmastime, and I hope we remember to treat others “the way Andy Griffith would.”

I’ve been saying it all week, but it bears repeating: Without great friends like you, there’s just no way Family Council would still be here. Your support means everything to us. If you have not already done so, I hope you will consider making a generous, tax-deductible gift of $50 by clicking here, and I hope you and your family have a very “Andy Griffith” Christmas.