Weaving Christ into Family Christmas Traditions - iBelieve Truth - December 22, 2023
Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! Psalm 95:6, ESV
My pastor is quick to remind us that we were created to worship. We are always worshiping something! Christmas time can be a wonderful season of dedicated worship. But it also can be an opportunity to misdirect our worship to worldly things.
My children are getting older and I’m sensing the need to be more intentional with the holiday season because I see how easily temporal things can snatch away their attention and adoration.
So how does one hold the tension of not becoming an Ebenezer Scrooge while also not forgetting the true reason for the season?
Here are a few simple ways to incorporate worship into our Christmas traditions this year.
Noticing which Christmas songs are about Christ.
People either love Christmas songs or they don’t. However, these joyful jams are unavoidable during this time of year. Secular and Christian radio stations join in on the festivities, adding a variety of Christmas tunes from all kinds of musicians to the roster. Christmas music is also laced throughout movies like The Grinch, a holiday must-watch at our house. However, some songs are about reindeer, and others are about our Savior. One way we can incorporate worship is to ask our kids when they hear Christmas songs if they can tell if they are about Santa or worship songs about Jesus.
Adding Advent
The word advent means arrival, appearance, or emergence. Celebrating Advent is a way to intentionally memorialize Christ’s arrival in Bethlehem as a tiny swaddled babe and to anticipate His second coming. Some people buy advent calendars filled with a little treat each night. Others light candles. We have done advent cards from ministries like Kids Read Truth, or read special Christmas devotionals. How you celebrate can be unique to your family’s needs, but adding in the anticipation of the coming Christ is a great way to worship Christ this Christmas.
Praying While You Kneel to Grab the Gifts Under the Tree
When I ask my children their favorite part about Christmas, they immediately exclaim in unity—the presents! If we are honest, we all look forward to ripping the paper off the treasures under the tree. Plus, we are usually willing to pile on the floor to participate in this exciting activity. And most of us get to do it more than once as we travel to our extended family’s homes and gather around their trees. What a great time to seize the opportunity to do what the Psalmist encouraged in our key verse. As we bow low to peek at what awaits us under the tree, may we position ourselves to kneel and worship our maker for a prayer of gratitude and adoration before the unwrapping commences. As you assume a posture of worship, snuggle your loved ones close and invite Jesus into this celebratory Christmas tradition.
To worship is to show honor, to give our attention to something. Christmas can be a time when our worship is averted to all that glistens and glows. However, we can weave Christ into our already existing traditions with a little intentionality. When we invite Christ into our Christmas movie-watching, evening routines, and in prayer as we kneel around the tree to unwrap the presents, we honor our Maker by worshipping Him as He created us to do.
Dear Lord,
We thank you for Christmas time. I praise you that we have time set aside for joyous traditions and time with family. Thank you for the reminders to be generous, rejoice, and celebrate together! But Lord, we also realize how easy it is for us to lose sight of the meaning of Christmas in all the extra festivities. I pray that each of us could creatively weave you into our traditions. Lord, show us how we can incorporate worshipping you as we go see lights, eat cookies, watch movies, and all the other things we will enjoy this Christmas season. Help us to honor you as we celebrate. May we worship, bow down, and kneel before You, Lord, our Maker (Psalm 95:6). Amen!
Photo Credit: ©Getty/Halfpoint
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