Why do we do this to ourselves? Isn’t Christmas supposed to be a happy time? Of course folks who are down on their luck have it rough, but do we really have to read about?

Someone recently remarked to me that there’s “no moral value or reason to read tear jerking stories about the less fortunate during Christmas”. I disagreed with them. We read these stories for various reasons:

• to remind ourselves of the unfortunate out there and how fortunate we really are
• to remind ourselves to pray and help those who may not have the means to give their gleaming eyed children the perfect Christmas
• to pray for those who are lost and in need of the salvation, help and love of Jesus
• to remind us that even when we are at the lowest we feel we can go, there’s a God who watches, loves, cares and can change circumstances as He sees fit

So as you pick up your Christmas story this year, let it take you on a different journey. Ask God for eyes that will allow you to see the beauty of that Christmas story and what He wants to show you. Don’t have it be “just another Christmas story”, make it a story that will touch your life and compel you to do more for Christ, more for those in need of Christ and more for those in need of help — those less fortunate than you.