Contentment at Christmastime

A recent discussion was going on about contentment at Christmastime. Specifically, what do you do if you are tempted to overspend (using Credit Cards...are as they should be called, Debt Cards!) while out with a friend who shops til she drops? How do we walk in contentment when everyone around us is spending money?

Think of this if it helps: don't be jealous of someone who needs all
year to pay off Christmas. I have an article that should be at Ladies
Against Feminism soon called "Have a Merry January". This is the basic
premise of the article! It should be up in the next few weeks.

Another way to look at it: God equates debt with slavery and curses
over and over in His word...so why celebrate His birthday by doing
something that He refers to as a curse, and willfully entering into an
arrangement that He equates with slavery? It's one thing when an
emergency happens and you need to whip out the plastic, but quite
another to do it to keep up with the joneses.

Two: don't shop with people who spend money as if they have a
bottomless well full of it, or you will feel poor even if you aren't.

There are some people I just can't go out and shop with! Try to find
people who enjoy being frugal and shop with them :-)..Pr. 13:20 says
that if you walk with the wise men you become wise, but you will be
harmed by hanging around foolish people(not that spending money is
always foolish but overextending oneself is definitely foolish!) This
is a good verse to make your kids know backwards and forwards, by the way!

Some in my family have more money than they know what to do
with (though many of them whine about not having enough), and those that don't feel the pressure to
charge it up so that they can live as if they do. I recently
learned that someone I know has over 100,000 dollars in unsecured
debt!!. Yowsa--that's higher than my mortgage! I definitely struggle
with wishing I had a nice fancy house with all new features, and new this and new that, but
I also see how all of this money and/or debt affects people if they have not learned to be content with what they have. In short, they totally miss just how blessed they are!

We over at our house are much more content with what we have, and my kids
aren't transformed into the whiny brats I see others having, begging
for this or that new toy when Christmas comes around(with mom and dad running about to different stores to look for whatever is "in" this year). My kids are happy
with the little things in life, and I thank God for it (by the way
they are ages 8-14). I learned along time ago that I can't compete with my relatives and some of my friends....I may look "cheap" but I don't buy anyone Christmas presents except my own kids (and dh) unless I find something really great that is ideal for them and won't break my budget. As for my kids, most of the time, they only get one each, in addition to the small items they get in the Advent Calendar. I wrote an article about this stuff called "Scaled Down Christmas" that is at my website www.joyfulmomma.org/articlesandresources.html

Spending too much on Christmas, if you want my frank opinion ;), is
bad not only for your budget but bad for your kids. My kids have never
gotten much for Christmas from us, and at first I was concerned that
they would feel left out or bad about it, but we do go out of our way
to make Christmas season special in other ways, and to really spend
time together, enjoying one another, and focusing on what we are
supposed to be celebrating. I see in many families I know, that the kids become more and more discontent the more "stuff" they get for Christmas, and half the time they forget about their gifts within a week or two. God's word calls us, over and
over again, to contentment, and yet the modern "spirit of Christmas"
is quite the opposite. If we say we are observing Christ's birthday, we should be encouraging Christ's character while doing so.

If we can afford more, there is nothing wrong with gifts mind you, but
I guess it is more the attitude surrounding it (particularly the
attitude displayed in the receivers of the gifts)...and so I strongly
urge you to make it a matter of prayer together with your husband, while
the kids are still young, and see what the Lord would have you do
regarding number and amount of gifts. Many I know give only three
gifts as that is what Jesus received (the three gifts from the Magi),
and others have a spending limit for total gifts.