I just heard on the radio yesterday that Lowe's hardware stores will no longer be calling their Christmas trees Christmas trees. Instead, they will be calling them Family Trees. How sad is that. Now normally I'm not one to share news like that, and I'm certainly not about to tell anyone where to shop or not shop, but this one just blew me away. I get several food magazines, and belong to several food communities, and it seems we're always talking about holidays. Magazines no longer just promote the big Christian holidays, but they also promote the holidays of other cultures. The holiday business is huge now! Yet I've always seen them called what they are. Chanukah is still Chanukah, Kwanzaa is still Kwanzaa, Eid El Fitr is still Eid El Fitr, and El Dia de los Muertos is still El Dia de los Muertos. We don't see the traditional symbol of Chanukah- the Menorrah being called a "Family Candle Holder" or the traditional Kwanzaa festival as a "Family Gathering". Part of living in the country we live in is being able to celebrate what is important to us in the way we choose. So why on earth would I want to call my Christmas tree a Family tree? Christmas is not about celebrating my family. It IS about enjoying the time with my family, but it's as we celebrate the birth of CHRIST so many years ago. It hasn't been enough that we so often hear "Happy Holidays" instead of Merry Christmas. Which I suppose is an okay compromise, because it does include all the holidays of the season. But Happy Family Day?
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.' Romans 12:2
"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." 1 John 2:15-17
"It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ," Titus 2:12-13
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