Creating a Memorable Christmas

     What a wonderful time of the year it is. And we've been giving a unique set of circumstances to create a truly memorable Christmas for our families. As I write, millions of people are participating in the shopping phenomenon known as Black Friday, but it isn't even Friday yet. So is it Black Thanksgiving? What a contradiction in terms. That's what life is today. A contradiction in terms.
     Yes, we are thankful for our blessings that allow us to sit at the heavy laden table to feast with loved ones; thankful for the jobs that we have that allow us to buy such things as a 20 lb turkey with all the trimmings, including green bean casserole, stuffing and pumpkin pie; thankful we are alive and have survived a year of tornadoes, hurricanes, a presidential election with its accompanying avalanche of negative political ads and a slumping economy. We are all wondering what's next? What's 'gonna come next? We may even be holding our breaths.
     Now, as "Daughters in Zion" we must make some quite giant decisions about this upcoming holiday season. Are we going to indulge in the frantic shopping that begins tonight at many stores that are requiring their employees to work on a day, when in past years it was sacrosanct as a day off to be with family, OR are we going to be sensible, sane, spiritual and to walk in the light?
The Special Gift We've Been Given this Year
     I won't beat around the bush and keep you in the dark one more moment. The gift we've been given is an extra week! 
     So, if you made a bad decision and realize you've got caught up in the materialistic world of Black Friday, you can repent. Isaiah tells us in Chapter 1: 18

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though the be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

The next verses tell us, "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword."

BE WILLING AND OBEDIENT
    How do we translate this into a MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS? As Michael Jackson would say let's, "Look at the man in the mirror, and ask him to change his ways." CHANGE. Let's together, change, and the results will amaze you.  Are we WILLING to take a stand for our family's sake and make this a truly remarkable and spiritual Christmas? What have we got to lose? Indeed we have much to gain. For God says, "I will turn (in Hebrew this means return; i.e. repeatedly chastise) my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin; And I will restore thy judges as at first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed,,,"
     Let's be OBEDIENT. Let's do what all the prophets, ancient and modern, have told us to do. Keep the commandments!
     The Lord told us at the beginning of this, "Come now, let us reason together." So let's you and I reason out how we might use our gift of an extra week, and plan out how to make this a Christmas our families will never forget.

PRAY FIRST FOR THE SPIRIT TO BE WITH YOU

     GOD is behind us in our efforts and he will inspire us exactly how to begin organizing or creating a memorable holiday period.  We have a full 32 days to do it.  Begin each day with a prayer that you may remember HIM, Jesus Christ in all of you plans, and that the Holy Spirit will direct your thoughts and actions.
     "Relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." In other words, each day do small act of kindness and teach your children that they, too should do this. It will make the season truly Christlike.
     Elder D. Todd Christofferson said, "Service will be your solution against selfishness and sense of entitlement that more and more afflict societies around the world...Your service will bless others, but it will also perfect you."
PLANNING A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS
     Keeping in mind the things I've just spoken about, let's follow Christ's example when He created this wonderful earth. Step by step I will lead you through a process that will help you create a memorable Christmas. God had a PLAN. It started long before the physical world was built in six creative periods.
To create a plan ask yourself the following basic questions:
How important is Christmas to me?
How important is Christmas to my family?
Why do I want to celebrate Christmas? Some reasons might include, tradition, your children or grandchildren, an annual social event, to win a neighborhood prize or recognition, your religious convictions, fond childhood memories, to feel good or joyful, or to learn new skills,  to teach/share skills with others, etc.
     You now, after thoughtful consideration and prayer, at least know WHY you are WILLING to spend time and energy to reach your goals of a successful Christmas celebration. You have a choice of how much time and money will be spent on the various phases of this plan. Hopefully you have not overspent on Black Friday because the step three includes a budget. But even this is not fatal; I have suggestions on how to reverse those impulsive actions including returning some of the gifts you bought when they don't fit into your plan.
Keep Reading My Blog
Tomorrow I will list all of things you may wish to review before you set a budget in Step 3.
I am thankful to all my family and friends who so enrich my life. This blog is an opportunity to give back and share some of the things that I've learned over the past 40 years. Christmas was always special to me. My mother helped show me how to creatively celebrate. Long before my daughter was born on Christmas day, I came to love and revere this season of joy.
May God bless you

Daughter of Zion

    I've been pondering Isaiah 1:8. This verse comes after the Lord laments how having nourished and brought up his children, that they have rebelled against him (1:2). How the land has become desolate, overthrown by strangers and devoured by those strangers, thus describing the situation that exists for this verse:

"And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard,

as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a beseiged city."  Isaiah 1:8

    I pondered the domestic references of the words cottage and garden of cucumbers, in juxtaposition with vineyard. Normally this word is used symbolically with the Lord's people and how on earth can those two references be linked with 'a beseiged city.'
Here is what I've come to conclude:
The Scene has Changed
    The Priesthood are usually referred to the watchmen on towers protecting the vineyard. Well, they've got to live somewhere, don't they? So they've left their wives in the cottage in the vineyard while they are off doing their work. But the economic and political situation that Isaiah describes in the first verses of this chapter indicate that the watchmen and their families no longer live in a protected place anymore, but the enemy (strangers) has overcome the children of the Lord and they've become stricken, and faint, and have rebelled from the Lord's ways.
    The daughter of Zion verse is followed by the Lord being thankful that He saved a "very small remnant" or else we'd have become like Sodom and Gomorrah. Thus we see the daughter of Zion and her small remnant as a city besieged.
Our Cottages are Under Bombardment
    Our homes are under bombardment of evil from the onslaught of mass communications. Our current day idols are Cell phones, Ipods, Ipads, Computers, Mini pads, laptops, downloadable movies and music from a million sites including Netflix and Crackle, etc.

Walking on the Dark Side

    As daughters of Zion, if we are not very very careful and diligent, we've given our young children permission to enter thru the door into pornography, bullying, malicious gossip and horror movies. They learn about the dark side of the world such as black fantasies of werewolves, vampires, the walking dead, and gothic images. I told a young LDS friend to try on the vanilla look instead of dark chocolate. The taste is more subtle but just as deliciously satisfying. But the young seem to be addicted to this dark chocolate look. They prefer black backgrounds on their FaceBook pages, painting their rooms black and wearing black clothing with designs of dark fantastical meanings parading on their chests and backs like badges of honor. They are assaulted with images and movies on the media that encourage tatoos, body piercings, sexual deviations, and glorify fornication, adultry, bestiality and homosexuality. Now, having been surrounded by this food of images for several years as "entertainment," they honestly think that same sex marriages are okay and are the typical "modern family." They don't see the insidious rot and decay of the family defined as the Lord ordained it in the world. (See the Family Proclamation to The World)

Come Walk in the Light

    So the daughter of Zion's kitchen garden of cucumbers, her children, are in jeopardy. Her cottage home is being threatened by subtle hidden strangers lurking in cyberspace. She does live in a home that is like a city besieged, but at a very intimate and personal level.
I looked up the meaning of besieged, because the first thing that came to my mind was cannon balls being lobbed over the city walls, guns and bombs type of attack. But the words in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, eleventh edition give only these three more subtle meanings:
1. To surround by armed forces
2. To press with requests
3. To cause worry or distress to
    These actually are less action oriented than I anticipated, and more accurately describe our modern homes or cottages.

Lust No Longer After the Things of the World

    Following verse eight, the Lord says don't just come to give me thought on Sundays and holidays, because He just can't endure it! And when we come to plead with him in time of need for help, He will hide His eyes and not hear our prayers. This is a pretty dangerous position to find ourselves.
T    he Lord then says (1:16) repent and cease to do evil; (1:17) lean to do well, seek justice, relieve the oppressed, watch out for the orphans/fatherless and plead for the widow.
    Even though our sins are as scarlet they can be as white as wool (1:18) if we are willing and obedient (1:19) we'll eat the good of the land. But if we rebel we'll be devoured by the sword (1:20). Yikes!!!
    He says that the faithful city has become a harlot lusting after things of the world and they have become murderers (abortion?) and the young Priesthood holders (the princes) are rebellious. (1:21-2)
    He then describes our modern world only too accurately in verse 23. Merchants defraud consumers, and money/silver has become as dross (waste or foreign matter). In our day silver is worth little and money is now held captive by foreign debt payments. Our young people love gifts and follow after rewards whether they earn them or not. They don't think of the fatherless or widows nor give service to the poor and needy.
    The Lord God of Israel, Jesus Christ, will avenge himself and his people against the enemies of God. He will purge the dross and take away our sins. And he will restore judges, counsellors and afterwards we'll again be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city:
    "Zion shall be redeemed with (justice) judgment, and her converts (sound familiar) with righteousness."
    Then those that have sinned and repented NOT will be burned or as a mighty oak in drought will fade just as does a garden that hath no water."
The Daughter of Zion is the Tipping Point: A Fulcrum
    The verse 8 has become the fulcrum or tipping point in Isaiah's opening chapters. Think this is for us in our day? The Daughter in Zion is the caretaker of the cottage and garden and although besieged on all sides by wickedness and evil, must bring the living waters of the gospel to her daughters and young princes, who will one day bear the Royal Priesthood, so that they may overcome the world and be nourished, walking in the His light and serving Him by serving others.