Fill up the stockings!

As a kid, I remember my dad telling me he got nuts and oranges in his stockings. To me, that was filler stuff. I wanted the good stuff. I wanted toys! And I’ve spent my time as ‘Santa’ buying fun things for my kids…dvd’s, games, cd’s candy, etc… It’s much easier to buy stuff for my little girl as she loves all things girlie: lotions and lipgloss. But buying stocking stuffers the other day, I started to think about our lives are like stockings. What do we put into our lives… good things? Or bad things? Recently I had a discussion with a friend who was telling me that R rated movies…even things that might lean toward the X variety don’t bother her. And a little question popped into my head — shouldn’t it? I aimed that question right at myself and some things I had allowed in my life came to mind. It was the Holy Spirit pointing out things to me that I needed to get rid of. Things that on the surface seemed fun and just entertainment but in reality weren’t such good things. I removed those things from my life and it has felt soooooooooooo good! It’s so easy to allow worldly things into our lives, things that on the surface seem fun, maybe even innocent, but it makes our hearts callus to evil, deception and wickedness. Phil 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” If we measured our movies and TV shows and music and books and all the entertainment we deem necessary in our lives up against this verse…oh might our eyes be opened! I think it would also remind us what this season is all about: not stockings or presents, not frolicking with friends or gorging on too many candies or cookies. It’s all about the One who sacrificed His life for us–Jesus Christ.If we fill up our lives with Jesus, and things that are lovely and pure and noble and excellent, then those things will flow out of us.