A few years back, Bryson decided he did not want to celebrate Christmas in the usual manner. He was fed up with the materialism associated with the holiday and couldn't understand why so much emphasis was placed on Santa Claus. He wanted to completely take Santa out of the picture and bring Jesus back into the scene. Now, don't get me wrong, we do not believe Jesus was actually born on December 25. We do, however, believe that He was born and that we should take advantage of every opportunity to celebrate the life that He has given us. So...as a family, we decided not to decorate with anything having to do with Santa and we started a new tradition.

This new tradition involves spiritual gifts - gifts with a spiritual emphasis. These gifts have ranged from Bibles/Bible story books to ornaments that help support a special cause and biblical wall charts. They've been as big as posters and as small as bookmarks. Some of these gifts have been daily reminders of God's love for us (like the painting of an angel watching over a father as he prays over his child) while others give us an extra boost on the rare occasions when they are used (such as the Christmas ornaments).

Now I know that giving Bibles and other religious gifts at Christmas is not unusual for Christians. But the temptation is for those gifts to become common just like the others. The difference should be that we place an added emphasis on these gifts. Our family calls these "spiritual gifts" each year when we start purchasing presents for each other. We say things like, "It's time to go get our spiritual gifts." We even set these gifts aside from the others and open them separately so they don't get lost in the rush of opening the other presents. We give them more meaning by placing a special value on them. We want our family to remember to celebrate the fact that God is the one Who gives all good gifts. He is the reason we are here and He deserves all the glory for the special gifts we are given.

Of course, I don't expect each of you to rush out and buy spiritual gifts this year just because we do. But possibly when you do give something of spiritual value then you will think of this little blog and place a little more value on that gift. If each of our families see that we place more emphasis on the spiritual gifts than we do the others, then maybe they will place more value on spiritual things, too.

It doesn't matter how big or small, expensive or inexpensive the gift. What matters is the value that you place on it. Whatever the spiritual gift, each one is a blessing to each of us and a special reminder of the fact that we belong to God.