[Faith-talk] FW: [reachingouttoothersgroup] KEEPING CHRISTMAS (BEAUTIFUL)

[Eric Calhoun]

I agree.  Merry Christmas.


Original Message: 
From: "Mary Ann" <SongsofJoy at shaw.ca>
To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
Subject: [reachingouttoothersgroup] KEEPING CHRISTMAS (BEAUTIFUL)
Date: 
Sat, 24 Dec 2011 08:38:28 -0700










           
     



      Keeping Christmas

      There is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day,
      and that is, keeping Christmas.

      Are you willing.
      - to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember
what other people have done for you;

      - to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the
world;

      to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle
distance,
      and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the
foreground; 

      - to see that men and women are just as real as you are, and try to
look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy;

      - to own up to the fact that probably the only good reason for your
existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are
going to give to life; 

      - to close your book of complaints against the management of the
universe,
      and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of
happiness- 

      Are you willing to do these things even for a day?
      Then you can keep Christmas.

      Are you willing  

      - to stoop down and consider the needs and desires of little
children;

      - to remember the weakness and loneliness of people growing old;

      - to stop asking how much your friends love you, and ask yourself
whether you love them enough;

      - to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear in
their hearts;

      - to try to understand what those who live in the same home with
you
      really want, without waiting for them to tell you;

      - to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke,
and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you;

      - to make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your
kindly feelings with the gate open-

      Are you willing to do these things, even for a day?
      Then you can keep Christmas.

      Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the
world-
      stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death-
      and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred
years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? 

      Then you can keep Christmas.

      And if you can keep it for a day, why not always? But you can never
keep it alone      

      Music is Jesus Is The Light Of The World

      God bless you.
      In Christian love,
      Sue


     
                   
           




                  Christian Letters by Sue
                  December 2010 ~ Font-Times New Roman
                  I do not claim these images as my own.  They are the
property of the artists. 
                  No © infringment is intended.  No profit is realized.
                  Email Sue