Dec 15 - Hope

Has your idea of the the promise of hope at the Christmas changed since you became an adult?

Write about the idea of "hope" as it relates to Christmas.

Another tough question to answer.  I guess I have never really equated "HOPE" with the holidays...don't know why.  Maybe it is because I have never been asked :)!

It sure seems to me these days that HOPE is that last thing people are thinking about or looking for during Christmas.  Anymore it has become so commercialized.  Do you ever wonder if some of the people you are elbow to elbow with in the stores even really know what it is we are celebrating?  Do they know that is the most important birthday EVER?  Or is this just a chance to spoil those we love and try and "out-do" ourselves and/or each other?  Maybe these people are just "HOPING" for the best deals, the shortest lines and the best gifts.

So, what is it that I HOPE for during Christmas?  What does it mean to me?  I would have to say that HOPE for me is a new chance, a do-over, a mulligan.  Because of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we have the HOPE of eternity!  We have the HOPE of seeing our loved ones faces again!  We have the HOPE of walking streets of gold one day!  Because of a birth, in a humble stable, long ago we have been given the gift of forgiveness.  We get to have the HOPE of a new start each day and the HOPE for a life overflowing with blessings!

This year, my HOPE for Christmas is that you, my family and friends, find the HOPE of Joy Everlasting and that the Savior finds a place in your hearts and homes!

"What is Christmas?  It is tenderness

for the past, courage for the present,

hope for the future."

 - Agnes M. Pharo