Afterthoughts on the Christmas Manifesto

Moments ago, I set the last box of Christmas decorations in our attic.  Christmas is now officially put to rest for the Arnold family.  It truly was a wonderful Advent season and Christmas.  Much of the joy of it for me was a definitely a direct result of my commitment to the declarations in The Christmas Manifesto.  For those of you who don’t know at the beginning of Advent I made the following 8 commitments.

  1. I will give gifts that honor God.
  2. I will hand make gifts.
  3. I will carol with boisterous gusto.
  4. I will read and write every day about Jesus in my prayer journal.
  5. I will create blog posts that help you have a more meaningful Advent and Christmas.
  6. I will approach Christmas with a child-like Spirit.
  7. I will sow seeds of peace, hope, love and joy every day.
  8. I will read my manifesto daily.

So here’s how I did and what I learned.

I blended Intentions #1 and #2 and was big on print for accomplishing these two.  For my daughter, I created a personalized journal to help her grow closer to God.  I bought a blank journal and then wrote on about ever fourth or fifth page scriptures to reflect on or activities to do and write about that would help her grow in her faith.  She really appreciated and brought it with us on our Christmas travels.  I included within it inspiring scripture references.  My son is not a journal writer but for him I bought a small devotional book that I annotated to personalize toward him.  For my wife, Susan, I bought a copy of “My, myself and Bob” which is a story of the faith journey of one of the creators of the popular Christian children’s video series, Veggietales.  She is loving the book and finding it both inspiring and thought provoking.

#3, I caroled with boisterous gusto at a nursing home with my youth group.  I also gave greater energy to singing hymns during our worship.

#4, I had some difficulties with journaling that I could have easily avoided by having a set time and place to do my journaling.  Sometimes I read and journaled in the morning to begin my day at the office and other times I did it at night before bed.  The problem was that several times I forgot to bring my journal home.  Regardless, I read passages about Jesus every day and reflected upon them.  That was the intent so I felt okay with how I did on #4.  The intent of the goal was not so much to accomplish a set number of journal entries.  Journal entries were just a way to insure that I took significant time reflecting on Jesus daily.  The important lesson I learned from this struggle was that consistency comes with having a predetermined routine and when that routine gets broken then substitute an activity that will help you stay true to the spirit of the goal.

#5.  I pumped out several updates and this post to help people.  I received a few comments that lead me to believe it was helpful for at least some people.

#6.  I will approach Christmas with a child-like spirit.  This is a much harder goal to quantify.  All I can say about this one is that I tried to bring a fresh spirit of wonder to buying and receiving gifts, listening to the story of Christmas and greeting people with a joyful wish of a Merry Christmas.

#7.  I will sow seeds of hope, love and joy each day.  I helped several needed people over the Christmas season and made particular daily efforts to encourage people and to pray for people.

#8  As mentioned in a prior post, I taped my manifesto to my bathroom mirror and read it daily this really kept me focused.  I read it out loud every morning and evening.

The Biggest Lesson Learned–The power of decisive intention coupled with action. I was not passive in my experience of Advent and Christmas.  Hardly any of the eight intentions were individually demanding or transformative but collectively there was a synergy that made a big difference.  It’s so easy to be passive about our relationship with God.  When we do so we wind up with a fox hole faith, meaning we only cry out to God when we need something.  Being intentional and having a daily expectation around active steps I would take was undeniably helpful.  I was more conscious of trying to serve and honor God throughout this Christmas more so than any other Christmas that I a remember.   I am sure that I will be issuing another manifesto next Christmas.  I probably won’t use exactly the same eight intentions but I highly recommend the experience.  Blessings to you from the Practical Disciple

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