Christmas

I know we've all heard about the true meaning of Christmas being lost in commercialism and Santa Claus. The other day I was looking in the Deseret Book catalog and saw a book by some guy trying to prove Santa Claus exists. I think some of the old Christmas songs say it best, they speak of a simple and uncluttered Christmas. What happened to the days when we used to wish, "Why can't every day be like Christmas." If everyday were like Christmas, I would come to hate Christmas. It would be more appropriate to say, "Why can't every day be the way Christmas should be." So many things have become associated with Christmas that detract from the overall experience: crazed shoppers, overwhelming hustle and bustle, stress to get the right gifts, seeing Christmas in stores before Halloween, commercialized Santaism, things and materialism. I could go on, but my point is to illustrate the difficulty in being able to wade through everything to find the Christ in Christmas, especially when it is shortened to X-mas. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. I get excited every year about putting out my Christmas village and putting up the tree and the lights. Somehow, I do manage to find meaning at Christmas time. I just wish the world could find the same meaning, without trying to over-complicate it.

Simply put, Christmas is a time of renewal, of new birth, symbolized by the birth of the Savior. Christmas is a time of warmth and love, when people come together, like the shepherds and the wise men. Christmas is a time of giving, not just of presents, but ourselves, just as the Father gave us a part of himself the night His son was born into our world. Christmas is a time to hope for the future, just as the angels hoped for a better future knowing that Christ had begun his saving mission. Christmas is a time to let go of the past and start embracing the future, just as Christ's birth marked the beginning of the end to an old law and the beginning of the new law.

Let's take the true meanings of Christmas to heart this year. Let's look for them through the fog that society has created and find them shining like a star that can't be dimmed, that lights the entire earth. I remember some words to a song I sang growing up, Mom, helped me out with the words.

"The night was long, we traveled far, at times I looked but could not see the star. yet still it shown, unveiling then the way to Bethlehem. My heart held fear, mid puzzled joy, for I was only a small shepherd boy, and on a hillside soft and green, I heard an angel sing. I saw the midnight sky aflame with radiant angels bathed in light, holy light, bringing word that Christ was born and beckoning to find him, go and find him. But life goes on, years beyond, one brief night of my youth, time clouds my vision of truth. And though I stumble and fall, I can hear someone call, do not despair, your star is still there. That Christmas night, so long ago, has filled my life with light because know that he lives now as he did then a babe in Bethlehem, whose love never ends. Shine for me again, star of Bethlehem." (Shine for me again: Star of Bethlehem).

Recording time

Many times I've wished that I'd kept a better record of my life. Actually, there are a lot of things I wish I had done and a lot of things that I still want to do. Where do we begin reconciling what we didn't do that we wanted to do, with what we actually did, even if it didn't turn out the way we wanted? I don't know of many things in my life that actually turned out the way I wanted, some have turned out better and some, obviously have not turned out as well as I had hoped. It might be significant that the things that have turned out better are those most likely to be related to my eternal happiness (family). I just wish I had a higher success rate, well, that I had less things go worse than I had hoped. I read a quote once, back in my days of collecting quotes, by the way, I'm thinking of typing them up soon, anyone interested? Anyway, back to the quote, "Of all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest of these, it might have been." That wasn't the one I was thinking of, but it seemed to apply. Years of not reading (anywhere near like what I used to) and not perusing through my quote book has gradually dulled my memory. The gist of the one I was actually thinking of is the disparity between what we are and what we could be. I realize we will never attain in this life to what we actually could be, but we should at least be drawing closer and lessoning the gap, right? As I've worked with James in his classes, I've noticed that we all define success in different ways, to some it's money, to others it's educational accomplishments, to yet others, it is family, career, etc. We each write our definition of success, but do we write it as what we want to accomplish or do we base it on what we have accomplished so that we feel we have been successful up to this point? What do you consider success?

The world is going to...

I look at the world around me and I'm not sure what to think. James likes watching Glenn Beck, so we hear about issues of national concern, international concern, and some that I'm not sure how they would be classified. I hear things on the news about the state the world is in. Everyone knows that the world is messed up, but sometimes I don't know if we know how messed up.

I look at the world like the game in the picture above. At first it was solid, then, people started playing and taking pieces out. It is getting more and more unstable and eventually, it will topple. What a crash that will be.

Think about it, society just doesn't make much sense anymore, as a whole that is. Parts of it aren't that bad, but overall? Take money, for instance, at one time it stood for something. Now, it is nothing more than a complex barter system and it's merely symbolic. With extra rich and extra poor, it doesn't mean anything, other than someone has more of something that isn't really real than someone else does.

The dog wins

vs

Security Systems

I've seen commercials about the ADT security systems, I'm sure you've seen them. This is my take on security systems. Sunday morning, I was in the shower when James left for his morning meetings. Since the kids were asleep in the living room, I had intended to ask him to lock the door after he left, but I forgot. Before my natural paranoia got out of hand, I remembered that Lady was loose in the house and my concerns were alleviated.


It reminded me about Cesar Milan, the dog whisperer. Yes, I watched that for awhile. He was able to do amazing things. I remember him talking about rottweilers. He had a special feeling for them because some of the first dogs he rehabilitated were rottweilers. He liked to call them gladiators and he never worried about leaving his wife and kids at home because of his dogs.


All in all, I think dogs constitute a much friendlier and less costly security system than systems like ADT. Plus, you have a built in reason to be more active and go for walks (Lady knows my walking shoes and gets pretty excited). Look at the benefits of dogs. They are interactive and there are proven medical benefits for people to own pets. They are easy to use, you feed them, play with them, and presto, they love you and protect you. They are easy to transfer if you move and you can take them wherever you go (Lady knows that when I grab the keys after dark that she is going with me). They can warm your feet and entertain your children. Sunday morning Lady and Peter had a tag game going on. It was opposite of what you would normally see. Usually you see a dog chasing a running child, this time, Lady was running from Peter and he followed. She would come into the room and stand by me, and, sure enough, here came Peter after her. She would run to the living room before he got anywhere close to her and he would turn around and follow her. I kept trying to tell her that by running from him, he just thought she was playing with him.

Another part of our family security systems is our firearms, of which we have quite a few. We have: two 12-guage shotguns, one 20-guage, one 30-30, two .22 rifles, one .22 pistol, one 30-06, one .357 revolver, and my sig. All the boys in the area know that it would not be wise to try to enter our house (I've been known to keep my pistol with me while James is gone). However, wisdom in all things. As I've said before, the best gun control is gun training. We teach our kids to respect guns and that they are not toys.

I feel that we are set for life when it comes to guns. We are also set for the next 10-15 years when it comes to dogs. What more could we ask for?