As we nestle around the fire, sink our teeth into some fresh-baked cookies, and prepare our homes for holiday celebrations, we look around and find words such as peace, love, and joy written in glitter letters on the front of Christmas cards and winter décor.
These words are displayed in store windows and circulate through the air over sound systems in busy department stores. Bustling crowds of shoppers catch the recognizable tunes of their favorite Christmas songs such as “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World” and stop for a moment to think about the peace and joy available to them.
Do you want to bring peace, joy, hope, and love home for the holidays? Do you want to make a lasting impression with your family by setting aside the commercialization of Christmas and embracing its true meaning through actions of the heart?
We have put together a list of ways you can bless others and celebrate this season with six simple one-word reminders. When you see the words on the list lit up or hear them sung, think about the meaningful way you want to bring them to life and illuminate them during this season.
1. Kindness
Kindness could be described as generously serving others. Though acts of kindness do not always look the same, they are all connected in spirit. When compassion and generosity radiate from our families, the Lord promises that the kindness of others will rejuvenate us.
Even when we cannot always physically serve an act of kindness to those who need it, we can be generous with our resources. It is said that the ultimate act of kindness is giving something to someone in need who will never be able to repay you.
“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”—Luke 6:38
Go HERE to discover more about helping those in need!
2. Peace
What would happen if we thought about how to bring peace into our homes every day? Would we change the words we speak? Would we change the tone we use with others? If we were to make every decision through the filter that we are responsible for bringing peace into our homes, we would be exceedingly blessed.
To bring peace into our homes, we must recognize where we need to extend peace to our world. Promote peace this holiday season, both in the world and in your home.
“Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.”—1 Peter 3:11
Go HERE to discover more about how you can promote peace!
3. Hope
How do you define hope? Bringing hope to the hopeless is what our Savior did for us. When you find ways to bring hope to others this season, you may be surprised to rediscover the hope that is yours.
Today, the word hope often implies some amount of doubt is present. However, to have biblical hope means you have confidence, security, and a lack of worry.
Imagine giving someone hope—the kind that has zero doubt involved, the kind that provides security. Embrace the hope you have and extend it to others and watch as your family is blessed with thoughts of peace.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”—Jeremiah 29:11
Go HERE to read more about a story of remembering hope in God!
4. Joy
Joy is an emotion that fills the soul with great delight and gladness. Joy enters your home by closely following hope. They are in partnership. When you have secure confidence, you can’t help but rejoice!
Sadly, there are those who live in very real fear every day… those whose homes are in the midst of turmoil. This does not always mean turmoil in the home, but at times right outside the door. Imagine living in an area that witnesses daily attacks and terrorism—a reality for many who live and farm along the tumultuous borders of Israel.
But to see joy displayed as a smile across the face of farmers who now have hope and happiness because their fields will once again yield a crop brings joy to those who provided the tree. Even when the circumstances around them encroach on their peace, they find joy in the olive tree.
“…For I will turn their mourning to joy, will comfort them, and make them rejoice rather than sorrow.”—Jeremiah 31:13
Go HERE to discover more about how you can bring joy to others!
5. Promises
Let us not forget the promises we’ve made to ourselves and the promises we’ve made to others. You can give the gift of joy and hope simply by reminding others of the promise that has been given to them through the Lord.
The Lord has made promises to you and His chosen people. He cannot break those covenant promises. So we can wait in faith and hope that He will restore all things. When you remind others of God’s promises, it brings joy to the Lord because His name is glorified!
God longs for us to remind His people of His unwavering promises.
- “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do ”—Ezekiel 36:26-27
- “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”—Acts 2:39
Go HERE to learn how God is fulfilling promises to His people!
6. Love
Love is quite possibly the most powerful word anyone can say. Love is what holds together the kindness, peace, hope, joy, and promises we are given. Wherever you are led to sow this season, do it out of love. Love is the greatest gift.
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
“Love suffers long and is kind… does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…”—1 Corinthians 13:1-4, 6-8 (emphasis added)
May you have a blessed holiday season!
Go HERE if you are in search of some last-minute gift ideas!