Keeping Your Faith in Mind While Holiday Shopping

Let’s face it, even though Christmas is supposed to be a time of celebration and focus on Christ’s birth, in reality, it can be pretty stressful. After all, it often comes along with planning and attending family gatherings, hosting overnight guests, large meal prep, lots of gifts to purchase, wrapping said gifts and decorations to set in place. All of these tasks can culminate in increasing your stress levels if you don’t approach them with the right frame of mind. Thankfully, if you keep your faith in God in mind while holiday shopping or planning, you will be less stressed and more focused on the true meaning of the season. Afterall, the goal of Christmas is to focus more on the story of God and less on the material items received under the tree. Luke 12:15 “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

How to Keep Faith Over the Holidays

The Love in Faith team has put together some practical tips on how to keep your faith top of mind this holiday season.

Read and/or Listen to Scripture

Your to-do list can be overwhelming during the holiday season. One way to maintain focus and remember your faith is to take time to read or listen to scripture. Ideally, you should take the time to sit down at an unhurried pace and read your Bible. However, if your schedule simply doesn’t allow for this luxury, you can always listen to scripture while you are driving to the stores to purchase presents, wrapping presents, cleaning up after or tackling any other number of items on your ever-growing to-do list. This will keep you in the right mindset on the way to purchase gifts and after the gifts are wrapped so you can start and end each experience with God.

Pray

In the Bible, we are shown that prayer is our way to communicate with God. Due to the stressful pace of the holiday season, prayer is often one aspect of your spiritual life that gets pushed to the back burner in order to prioritize holiday decorating, cooking and shopping. Try to make time for powerful prayer on your drive to the stores. Thank God for the employees who are spending time away from their family to keep the stores open so you can grab those last minute gifts. Pray that your children and loved ones see the value in the love behind the gift, and not just the material item itself. You can make time for prayer on your drive, while wrapping gifts or even before opening gifts. This practice will help keep God in your heart as you exchange tangible presents with friends and family.

Make Time to Serve Others

Another important way to focus on your faith in God during the Christmas season is to make time to serve others. Sure, this can include giving gifts to others, including homemade goodies. It could also include going and volunteering your time to help various ministries like food banks, soup kitchens, and other types of charities or organizations like Toys for Tots. Ask around your local community about what needs are most pressing in your town during Christmas and volunteer to help out if you can fit it into your schedule. You will be surprised how rewarding serving others will be and how it will help you see how blessed you are when you realize there are so many others who have much less than you. Giving them the gift of joy this time of year is extremely uplifting and encouraging. Remember the many passages that talk about being generous and giving of yourself. One of which is found in Proverbs 11:24-25, “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched and one who waters will himself be watered.”

Praise God

Another important way to keep your faith high this holiday season, as you do your shopping and check off your do list is to praise God. You can do this verbally through prayer, thanking God for how He has provided for you throughout the year or praising Him for giving the gift of His son to us all. We recommend listening to praise and worship songs as you go about your daily tasks to maintain a spirit of praise and thanksgiving to God. You can also listen to calming Christmas carols that help you focus on God and all He has done for you, not only in this season but throughout the entire year. Psalm 7:17 “I will give thanks to the Lord because of His righteousness; I will sing praises of the name of the Lord Most High.”

Rest and Reflect

Finally, the last and likely most challenging way to keep faith in mind when Christmas gift shopping and throughout the Christmas season is to rest and reflect. In our society today, there are many temptations that allow us to always be on the go and jeopardize spending quality time with God. However, in the Bible, we are given many examples of the importance of proper rest and reflection. In fact, we are commanded to rest and should therefore not feel guilty or lazy when we adhere to the mandates set forth by God for an abundant life. Keep your holiday shopping at bay by choosing 1-2 days a week to focus on gifts. Be sure to set restful time aside to spend with family and friends or attend a candlelight service to remind yourself of the true value of this holiday season. The idea is to stop running around and simply be still and know that God is the savior and that He has come so that we may live life more abundantly. Remember 1 Psalm 46:10 when you feel yourself getting overwhelmed. It reads, “He says ‘Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’”

Keep Christ in Your Christmas Giving

In addition to keeping the above tips in mind during the Christmas season, you can also shop Christian apparel from Love in Faith for the whole family. Choose items from either our Christmas seasonal collection or from our many options to fulfill all your holiday gift shopping in one easy place. Our large inventory of Christian t-shirts, sweatshirts and accessories come in a variety of sizes, designs and fits, which may help minimize the stress of going out to the stores and waiting in long lines. Search for your favorite Bible verse or messages on one of our Christmas t-shirts and don’t forget to keep your faith in mind with every purchase you make this holiday season.