By Denise George
The Baptist Paper
During the holiday season, both physical and spiritual health can easily be neglected amid indulgences and busy schedules.
Holiday celebrations often center around large, festive meals and rich desserts, typically high in calories, sugar and unhealthy fats. For many, ’tis the season for overeating, weight gain and digestive discomfort. For those who include alcohol in their festivities, the holidays can prompt drinking too much, negatively affecting liver health, disrupting sleep and harming overall well-being.
Busy holiday schedules bring extra demands, such as shopping, cooking and social gatherings, often disrupting regular exercise routines, leading to a decrease in physical fitness. Increased workloads and preparation time, coupled with fewer opportunities to relieve stress through exercise, can elevate unhealthy stress levels.
Financial pressures, social obligations and high expectations can further cause unhealthy stress, leading to physical fatigue, anxiety or a weakened immune system.
Late-night events, holiday activities and the excitement of the season can disrupt
essential sleep. According to the Mayo Clinic, insufficient sleep increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, weakened immunity and cardiovascular diseases.
Christmas has become highly commercialized, with a strong focus on material possessions and consumerism, which can distract from the true meaning of the season — celebrating Christ’s birth.
This focus — along with the hustle and bustle of the season — often leaves little time for prayer, Scripture, worship and reflection.
How can families today maintain both physical and spiritual health during the Christmas holidays?
Enjoy holiday meals, but don’t overeat or overindulge. Focus on healthy, nutritious foods that provide energy and build the body.
Discuss which aspects of the holiday are most meaningful. This allows everyone to have input, helps set clear expectations and reduces the pressure to do everything. Focus on quality time together, enjoying a family game night, baking cookies or decorating the Christmas tree.
Choose carefully which events and activities to attend, and don’t feel obligated to attend every one. Select a few meaningful events and politely decline others.
Divide holiday tasks like cooking, decorating or hosting among family members. If hosting a holiday meal, ask guests to bring side dishes to lighten your load. Sharing responsibilities make holiday preparation less overwhelming and allows everyone to contribute.
Rethink and simplify gift-giving to focus less on expense and more on meaning. Set realistic limits, preventing overspending and simplifying the shopping process. Consider drawing names for a family gift exchange instead of buying presents for every member.
Maintain spiritual health by making worship a priority. Attend church services and participate in meaningful church activities that keep the focus on Christ.
Make time for devotions
Set aside time each day to read Scripture and pray together as a family.
Seek guidance from church leaders. Ask your pastor to preach about simplifying the holidays and encourage families to minister to the grieving or lonely within the church and community.
Sing hymns like “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World” to remind the congregation of Jesus, the Light who came into the world (see sidebar).
The Christmas holidays can bring joy and family togetherness, but they can also introduce pressures that impact both physical and spiritual well-being. By embracing moderation, simplifying traditions, maintaining healthy habits and keeping Christ at the center, you can enjoy a holiday filled with lasting joy, deeper spiritual connection and a renewed sense of purpose.
10 Christian hymns that explain Christ’s birth
- “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”
- “Hark! The Herald Angel Sing”
- “Joy to the World”
- “Silent Night”
- “O Holy Night”
- “Angels We Have Heard on High”
- “O Come, All Ye Faithful”
- “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear”
- “What Child is This?”
- “Away in a Manger”
Each of these hymns proclaims theological truths about Christ’s incarnation, His divine mission and the fulfillment of God’s promise to bring salvation to the world. Sing them together as a family, and request that they be included in your church worship services. (Denise George)
Responding to the DR call
By Joyce Harman
California Southern Baptist Convention
The need is great and diverse when people face a traumatic, life-changing event. Our gracious God provides in miraculous ways.
The ministry of Disaster Relief is the bridge to individuals who need renewed hope, help and healing. These volunteers are trained and ready to respond to any type of natural disaster that may arise.
When a crisis occurs, a call out for deployment is posted, volunteers make a commitment to serve, and Christ’s love (charity) is revealed.
Baptists truly are part of the Disaster Relief team when they pray, give and go.
When Christians pray, it directly impacts those who have suffered loss and the volunteers who are helping those who are hurting.
The generous giving of donors provides financial support that allows volunteers to serve in the disaster area. When donors give, they are an integral part of the DR team.
Volunteers in the field are grateful for sacrificial giving that allows them to go and be the hands and feet of Jesus at the disaster site.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was originally published by the California Southern Baptist Convention.
There is nothing more important for church revitalization than disciple-making. Remember, you are not trying to revitalize an organization, you are revitalizing people because the Church is people.
To awaken the heart of a church, it must be done individually, organically, intentionally and consistently. Church leaders can develop a strategy, but that strategy has to be carried out by members, and if leaders have not invested in them spiritually, they will never be successful in implementing it.
We are not revitalizing churches as much as we are revitalizing people. Don’t fall into the trap of the programmatic black hole. If we are not careful, we can develop a strategy, throw a bunch of new programs on top of it, and ask everyone to be involved only to find out that programs have life cycles.
The best way to be on guard is to know what the Scriptures say. False teachers will twist the Bible to suit their own needs, but if we are familiar with the entire Bible we can see when Scripture is being twisted.
It is easy to take one verse out of context, but it is difficult to do that with the entire Bible.
Robert Olsen
Associate professor of Christian studies
University of Mobile
Excerpt from Explore the Bible Sunday School lesson for Nov. 3
People who have come to know the joy of God do not deny the darkness, but they choose not to live in it. They claim that the light that shines in the darkness can be trusted more than the darkness itself and that a little bit of light can dispel a lot of darkness. They point each other to flashes of light here and there, and remind each other that they reveal the hidden but real presence of God.
They discover that there are people who heal each other’s wounds, forgive each other’s offenses, share their possessions, foster the spirit of community, celebrate the gifts they have received and live in constant anticipation of the full manifestation of God’s glory.
Henri Nouwen
Author, leader on spiritual disciplines
I’m just ironing away and wondering why nothing was changing with the condition of my shirt. I turned around and realized the iron was not connected to a power source.
It’s so easy to go through the motions of life, but if your life isn’t connected to THE POWER SOURCE, everything in your life will just stay wrinkled.
—Ephesians 6:10
Dewayne Rembert
Montgomery, Alabama
The more we strive for a better world, the more frustrated we become when we fail. And the more we should then turn to the One who alone can change human hearts (2 Cor. 5:17). Praying for the lost to be saved and for the saved to be sanctified is the most powerful way to serve both.
Jim Denison
Theologian in residence
Baptist General Convention of Texas
You can love other people and still disagree with them.
Sarah Stock
College student in California
