??Christmas??

Christmas always makes me think of the people that I have been blessed to have in my life. Those who are still in my life, those I've lost, and those who I've recently been blessed with. Relationships are ALL different and it's such a challenging thing to define each relationship, for what it is, what it was and to not want something more or to become stagnant when the relationship could be so much better.

I've spent a better part of the last month just thinking about the people I have in my life and defining the relationships, in truth, for what they really are. As well to be able to see the full potential of the relationship so that we don't put unrealistic expectations on people and that we just accept that perhaps a friendship has reached it's full potential.

I have a few friends, as of late, that I'm still trying to figure out exactly where the relationship is, or what the relationship is. The challenging part of this endeavor is that we are dealing with people. People who have feelings, people who have burdens, baggage, and all that other stuff that comes with being human, sinful and essentially apart from God.

Thus, the reason for the season: Christ! What is Christmas without Christ? 'mas' that's what it is... and what is 'mas'?? well I looked it up and found this on Answers.com.

"'Christmas' is derived from the old English "Cristes Maesse," or "Christ's Festival" The "Mas" is thus derived from the "festival""

So pretty much the ending Mas means festival... so without Christ we have no reason to have this festival... it's not called presentmas or familymas etc... it's called Christ'mas' as in Christ's Festival.

So back to relationships... What are relationships without Christ? How can we define a friendship without looking through Christ's eyes of love and compassion? Without seeing Christ's sacrifice for that person's life? Nothing is more important than loving each person and seeing them through Christ's eyes. Yes, people are hurtful, people are mean, WE are sinners, however, WE are ALL sinners and we need to understand that there are things in each of us that are unlikeable, that are mean, that are evil... We need to humble ourselves and understand that we are no better than our neighbour no matter how much they may hurt us, no matter how much they might irritate us, no matter how much you see them hurting themselves and thus those around them, we need to love them. When I say love them, I don't mean give up all our time, let them use us, walk all over us. Sometimes love means 'tough love', or love that waits, love that let's them make their mistakes and ultimately make their own choice to not do that thing, or be that way etc... We can't change eachother, all we can do is be patient, love, and have faith.

Merry Christmas Everyone!