My Grown Up Christmas List

This is a heavy post. I know that Christmas is supposed to be a light hearted, fun and cheery time. For me it is, thankfully. I am so very blessed to not have any major sadness in my life. Although the negative balance in my bank account for the last 2 days seemed tragic for a moment...its so not. I have a healthy and happy family that I am very, VERY thankful for this year! My neighbor informed me last week that she has no one to celebrate Christmas with. She is feeling so very lonely with her kids and grand kids who are all living out of state. My sorority sister is missing her mother who died of cancer years ago, but misses her like crazy. My sister knows someone who has a husband dying of cancer. He has a 2 year old daughter.

This time of year can be the most wonderful time of the year for some, and for others the worst. Those of us so blessed and comfortable in life, we can so easily forget how blessed we really are.

I can remember as a child my mom would put on Christmas music from Thanksgiving to Christmas. I now do the same, by the way! But one song in particular brings a flood of memories. And not good ones. My parents went through some tough times and separations when I was younger. My mom used to play Amy Grant's Christmas album and when the song  Grown Up Christmas List  would come on she would talk about hers. One year I think she even wrote out a grown up list. The pain she was feeling was so apparent, and clearly the holidays was salt on her wound. The unhappiness she felt was amplified by Christmas.  Here is a version I can listen to Grown Up Christmas List -Michael Buble. The Amy Grant version brings up too many memories for me.

In my life the hurt, loneliness, and pain is drowned out by the birth of Christ.The  Love, Grace, and Mercy Jesus gives me drowns all of this heavy stuff out. I feel the need to apologize if at anytime a Christian has treated you with judgement, hate, or hostility. It may have been me. It may have been someone you loved dearly. But that is not Jesus.  He heals all, Loves all, Forgives all.

Merry Christmas, may it be full of JESUS!

Warranty

My children have a little portable DVD player that we got as a gift from a friend for Bella when she was 2. When the twins were born I would often put on a movie for her while I was breast feeding, or we would use it in the car for long trips to visit family in Greeley. I have since replaced this 3 times. The first time the screen went out, the second time for the eject button malfunctioning. Now our third again has a faulty screen. Granted this DVD player is lower end (rhymes with Shmilps), and it is often operated by little 4 year old fingers,but this thing just keeps going out! I went to exchange yet another one (to a place that rhymes with Shmall-Shmart) and they said that it was past the return date. I began to explain that I have had this problem twice before and have been given a replacement with no problems before. Apparently, they now have a database that will pull up your purchase date and only a 60 day period is for returns or exchanges. This is a great system...for criminals and people taking advantage of the system! But my latest replacement was mid summer. I do not think this is how long a DVD player should last, eh? Am I wrong? So after she told me she couldn't return it, she asked if I had bought a warranty. I had not bought one so she sent me on my way.

war·ran·ty

A written guarantee, issued to the purchaser of an article by its manufacturer, promising to repair or replace it if necessary within a... (in contract law) A promise that something in furtherance of the contract is guaranteed by one of the contractors, esp. the seller's...

Warranty's are so dumb! Here, let me charge you an extra $20 to insure my product does what it is suppose to. Yea, that makes a lot of sense. What happened to just guaranteeing your product will work like it supposed to regardless of a warranty. I mean if you want to get all extreme, I understand that a big purchase like a car can only be guaranteed to work for a certain amount of time. Great, but a $60 DVD player, REALLY?  It just seems silly to me.

I, of course, began to parallel this to life. People now have to buy warranty's on marriage (pre-nups) to ensure the marriage to even ensure it ends that way its supposed to! When we get married (in other words, make the purchase) don't we already guarantee love and faithfulness? When we become Christians, don't we already guarantee love and forgiveness to others? I have been shown otherwise this year. I am not perfect and I mess up everyday. But it seems that people have forgotten what they promised upon the sale.

I refuse to pay extra for a product that should function as its supposed to anyway. Just like I refuse to accept that people are supposed to act as they wish no matter the cost it has on their relationships. Family is family regardless if you were married into it, or born into it. Defend the weak, help the poor. All things I don't need to buy a warranty for. I just need to do it, and work properly. I hope you do the same.