The Christmas Care Package Challenge

"Record Snowfall" by Derek1 from WonderPhotos

My sister-in-law LOVES birds. She loves to watch birds outside her window and she especially loves Christmas cardinals.  My SIL is also a pastor's wife and has learned to hate Christmas.  Her husband is the pastor of a small church and a lot of the work falls on my SIL's shoulder.  Christmas is usually SO busy, SO rushed, and SO stressful that she dreads it each year.  I wanted to encourage her so I gave her a Christmas care package.  I won't give you all the details but it had a lot of notes of encouragement and a lot of birds.

I have a very good friend who is going through tough times right now so I am giving her a care package too.  The gift bag is full of little bags with a note and a little gift inside. She is due here any minute and I can hardly wait to watch her open it. Here are a few of the notes I put on the bags:

Tough times don't have to get ya down if you keep a few tricks under your belt:

.1. The most important thing is - Be anxious for NOTHING but cast all of your care on Him because He cares for you.

2. Praise Him.  Look for what He did for you each day.

3. Find pleasure in the small and simple things.

4. Take time to relax and think ONLY pleasant thoughts.

5. Make time to have fun with friends.

6. No matter where you roam (she might have to move), home is where Jesus is taking care of you.

The were a few more notes pertinent to my friend.  I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out what gift I chose to go with each comment. (Hint: They were small, cute, and inexpensive.)

Do you know someone who is having a hard time this Christmas season?  Why not go shopping at thrift stores, dollar stores, sale racks and collect a few gifts that would mean something to that person, pack  'em up in a gift bag, add a few encouraging notes and make 'em smile.  It is SO much fun!

Encourage one another and happy shopping, Sam

The Measure of Greatness

One purpose for my blog is to be an archive of tidbits I come across that I want to keep track of and remember. It might be an encouraging e-mail, story, or quote. I hope that these tidbits will also be an encouragement to you.



A school music teacher received this essay from an eight-year-old student concerning Johann Sebastian Bach: "He was a GREAT composer. He had 20 children and had an old spinster in the attic to practice on."

Actually, I don't know the exact number of children he had, but it seems to be quite a few. And I don't know what he kept in the attic ... or what he practiced on. But the student was absolutely right about one thing: Bach was a GREAT composer.

Not all of us can be great at what we do. I try to do some things the very best I can. But that means I cannot give much attention to some of the less important tasks.

But what about just being good at WHO WE ARE? Good human beings? Even being GREAT at who we are?





Author James Michener learned something about greatness on a stormy night in the South Pacific. His plane was trying desperately to land on the Tontouta airstrip but could not do so. After several attempts in the dark of night, his knuckles were white with fear. When they finally landed safely, Michener went out and walked the length of the airstrip, looking at the dim outlines of the mountains they had so narrowly missed. He wrote this:

"And as I stood there in the darkness I caught a glimpse of the remaining years of my life and I swore an oath when peace came, if I survived, I would live the rest of my years as if I were a great man. I did not presume to think that I would be a great man. I have never thought in those terms, but I could conduct myself as if I were. I would adhere to my basic principles. I would bear public testimony to what I believed. I would be a better man. I would help others. I would truly believe and act as if all men were my brothers. And I would strive to make whatever world in which I found myself a better place. In the darkness a magnificent peace settled over me, for I saw that I could actually attain each of those objectives, and I never looked back."

Michener says that the very next day he started to draft the book TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC.* And if it can ever be said that he became a great man, I suspect it was only because he decided to be a better man than he was before.

Greatness may never have been your goal. But you and I can be a little better today than we were yesterday. We can help others a bit more today than yesterday. We can act more deliberately as if all people are our sisters and brothers. We can leave the world a better place tomorrow than we found it today.

And if that is the way to greatness, then we all can head that direction. One step at a time ... beginning today.

Steve Goodier