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| LOC: Baby with Mother by Geo B Petty, 1912. |
Tonight is Christmas Eve. The stores and banks will close early. Families will be gathered at home, or visiting one another. There will be church services tonight and everyone will be pondering the birth of Christ and enjoying the Passages from the book of Luke. It is a heartwarming time of year.
Yet, in some homes, there are financial woes. When these mothers think of Christmas, they despair at the idea of coming up with money for presents. They pray and cry out and wish they could afford gifts for their children. Perhaps the heating bill was too high this month? Or the car was acting up? Maybe the cost of basic food is getting to be impossible to manage. Regardless of the source of their worries, these mothers cannot imagine Christmas morning without some sadness. They hear others say their shopping is done and the presents are wrapped, and they weep in their hearts, because they have not.
We must remember that many years ago, this mass idea of multitudes of presents was not the normal custom. Remember Laura and Mary Ingalls? They received an orange, some Christmas candy, a knitted scarf and a Christmas penny. They were thrilled and delighted!
Alas, we want to buy our children nice things. We love them dearly and enjoy seeing their happy, surprised faces when they open gifts! We have to be ever so careful to come up with the money and choose just the right items. The depression-era mothers would spend months filling up their money jar, scrimping and saving so they could buy a special gift for each child. It was an enormous sacrifice, but one these mothers would willingly make.
I remember, years ago, when I only had two little girls. I stayed up late each night, all week long, before Christmas and sewed matching dresses for my children. I used a dark calico print with pretty pink hearts all over it. I trimmed the dresses with lace and made matching hair ribbons. My girls were so surprised and wore them to church on Christmas morning. It was such a sacrifice for me, but worth every moment!
In these hard times, Mothers of today must have courage. We walk into our kitchens and wonder what we are going to feed the family. We have to smile and pray and come up with creative ways to make nutritious, filling meals. We need to keep the thought of hardship, suffering, and want out of our homes. Our children need to feel secure. We must be brave and inventive! We have to avoid giving- in to depression or sorrow.
We Mothers in this generation are facing hard economic times. I pray these Mothers have Christmas courage. It is a special kind of courage and will carry us through for months to come!
Blessings
Mrs. White
From the Archives -
A Precious, Quiet Time - The Sewing Hour
To Encourage You - A Mother's Legacy
Financial Woes - Focusing on the Blessings at Home
- To find out more about this blog, or Mrs. White, please visit our About page. -
9 comments:
A beautiful post, Mrs. White!
This was a beautiful, heart-felt post! And a great reminder that Christmas is more than a bunch of presents under the tree. Thank you for encouraging mothers who are struggling today!
Thank you for another wonderful post.
Merry Christmas to all and Blessings to you and your family.
I enjoy reading your thoughtful words. I sent you an email a few days ago. I hope you received it. :)
Dawn T.
Lovely post Mrs. White
We are having a stress free Christmas this year! No gifts, we are all going to have a family gathering at my inlaws on Monday, first time all the children (12) and spouse and all our kids (9 grand babies so far) will be all together:-)
We will, eat, pray and be together and share the gift of each others presence!
Praying to see who and how we can help with the need on people around us this year!
Have a blessed Christmas
The Stam
Thank you for your thoughtful and lovely post. You are so wise, and encouraging. Merry Christmas, Mrs White.
A beautiful post Mrs. White! Thank you for encouraging our courage!
This is my third Christmas I didn't go Christmas shopping. My husband gives gift cards. We didn't even put up the made-in-China Christmas tree with its made-in-China decorations(I would have gone crazy with the 4 grandbabies). I have been uncomfortable with the tree for years-ever since we attended a Messianic Jewish church in the eighties(Jeremiah 10:2-5 carved images from trees,etc.- KJV). We had a turkey dinner with the 6 children,spouses,and grandchildren. I stopped sending out cards. Our local tv produce guy grew up getting wrapped fruit for Christmas-naval oranges, apples,etc.). One son(17) did all his shopping at 9PM Friday at Kmart and a married son did last minute shopping on Friday(7PM)at Walmart(it was very busy). This morning we can't go to our Baptist church because it is snowing-expecting a foot of snow on eastern Long Island. Our church is 30 minutes away. Good post as always.
I needed this reminder today. Just a few days before Christmas I was able to go out and buy a few little things for the children this year.
Finances were not too bad this year, but I was right in the middle of a miscarriage. I had severe morning sickness and then we found out the baby's heart stopped beating. I held out at home waiting for the miscarriage to pass and resting so as not to hemorrage (I have ten living children and two miscarriages before this one) or have anything else go wrong.
(Not a poor me post, I just wanted to tell you that this post encouraged me even though I read it after the holiday.)
What mattered most this Christmas was not what was under the tree but what was around my table. Family.
Blessings.
So very encouraging. I am new to your blog but you are helping me so much!! God bless you!
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