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This years Christmas message has a little from the present, the past and the future. We talk about the symbolism of Christmas trees for the present. Reminisce on things learned this past year, please feel free to send in some of your feed back too. Gave you a little peak at a few things coming down the road for the Weekly Deep Dive and Add On Education in 2023. Merry Christmas!
While I enjoyed your anthology and history of the Christmas tree based in middle Europe, Germany specifically, I don’t think you’re far enough back into history. Jeremiah predated Germany by quite a bit. Jeremiah saw these tree traditions in chapter ten verses 1-5. “For one cutteth a tree of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails….”
Not to take away from your exposition and discussion, this is the first time I’ve listened to you, but I found the 10 minutes of prattle with your producer before launching into the main course distracting and a temptation to leave, so hang in there and try not to depend on Jingle Bells dissonance for attraction. 👍🏼
Thanks James! Fascinating on the Christmas tree right? I think I went back to about that far when we talked about Lehi’s vision of the Tree of Life, but your absolutely right, Jeremiah’s reference to this ritual practice shows that the history is a lot deeper and richer than we typically give it credit. And it’s also interesting to note that the tree worship is mentioned often in regards to unholy practice and idolatry. Going back to Abraham we have groves and tree worship. Too easily today, I think we can replace the symbol of the tree with worshipping a different kind of God.
Thanks for your honesty and feedback, it is much appreciated. I’m sure we get carried away quite a bit. I hope it’s not too much, we want to show that not only is this interesting to us. It something we genuinely enjoy too.
Loved hearing your thoughts, feel free to share anytime!
A huge thank you from the bottom of my heart for your efforts to make such a brilliant podcast. I have listened for the better part of a year and am a better disciple of Christ because of your efforts to help me and so many others get into the scriptures differently.
With regards to processes. Many processes, take time, patience, faith (lots and lots of faith), work, and a long-term commitment.
I served a mission over 30 years ago in Guatemala. My husband served a mission in South Africa 25 years ago. Because of these marvellous experiences we had we wanted our children to also experience the joys of being a missionary. We knew, however, getting them to that point would take a lot of work and effort on our part. We knew the process was not going to be easy or fast. Most important this had to be their process that we supported them in. We wanted them all to want this for themselves and not for any other reason.
I can give you a myriad of examples of processes we made up on the fly as we went, things we stuck with things we let go of, but in a nutshell, we did everything with the end goal and mine.
Our children started learning to take responsibility for cleaning up their toys before they were two. We started sharing with them the stories of Jesus long before they could talk, and even before any of them were born. Teaching our children how to work, and to love work was perhaps one of the most time-consuming difficult processes we were all a part of.
Now looking back, I am ever so grateful. We invested the time necessary as they and we learned what we needed to as we walked this path together with the end in mind.
This Christmas our Christmas day presents coming via FaceTime will be the greatest gifts we have ever received yet. We will hear from three of our five children all serving missions in South America Christmas day. I don’t think there is a greater blessing one can experience as a parent than hearing from a missionary doing well, loving the work, and happily, sharing the stories of Jesus around the world. My cup is so full it is bursting with joy at what the Lord can do with our measly, but best efforts.
I cannot count the amount of times we made massive errors as parents, but we never let go of the goal of our five children all having an opportunity if they choose to serve a mission.
The younger two children at home are continuing to to learn in real time the beauty and challenges of being a Full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as they watch their siblings serve and hear their testimonies and stories.
They are learning that this process of becoming what and who God wants us to be is hard and beautiful at the same time. They are coming to better understand that salvation is not cheap. What a journey it has been. What a pleasure it is as a parent to have the joy of watching them every week “grow up” spiritually. It’s been an amazing process to watch. All that effort in going about parenting with the end goal in mind has paid off and now we are a part of watching them become themselves as they loose themselves in the service of God.
Wow!
Thanks for your kind words and sharing those amazing blessings with us! I am so happy for your family. There is nothing quite like family that can melt the heart and make us feel the way we do about them. Isn’t it great we can all be part of a divine family too? Thanks for sharing, I pray that your family will continue to enjoy the fruits of good parenting and you will be blessed to see grandchildren raised by good parents too!
Thanks for taking the time to share and feel free to chime in anytime, I would love to hear your thoughts, experiences and questions!
I really love your podcast this week. The part Nate is giving is so great…entitlement and impatience is today’s curse for sure. Thanks for your efforts!!
Thanks Cindy! We appreciate you taking time to not only listen to the show but reach out and engage with us. I agree, and I feel like anytime we can get Nate in the discussion more, it goes a lot better. We’re looking forward to going through the New Testament with you!