True Meaning of Christmas

It’s the time of the year again. Christmas is around the corner! People are busy shopping for Christmas presents to gift their family and friends and are looking forward to have a joyous time with their loved ones.

However, many people will not be able share in that joy. Unfortunately, for some people, Christmas is a lonely and sad time of the year for them, as they cannot afford to buy presents or wonderful Christmas dinner. In the modern day of social media and excessive consumerism, Christmas has become so over-commercialised. Many people even go to great lengths to buy the perfect Christmas presents for their families and friends. 1 in 3 people take on debts to pay for Christmas presents. Many take out loans, max out their credit cards and borrow money from their friends. All because they think this what makes their Christmas special.

Yet, that’s not what the true meaning of Christmas is about. It is meant to be a time of joy. It’s a celebration of Christ’s birth. God sent His son, Jesus, to bring Joy, Peace, Hope and Love into the world. He is the greatest ‘Christmas’ gift from God to us.

Luke 2:9-11 says:

“9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. “

If you are one of the people who is dreading Christmas, remember Jesus is the reason for the season. Jesus came to give you love, joy, peace and hope. He came to die for our sins, so that our relationship to God could be restored. Also remember that God has blessed you with countless gifts over the year. You have to realise that life in itself is more valuable then anything money could buy. Remain thankful for what you have. He is your provider, He will NEVER forsake you!

Isaiah 54:10 says:

“The mountains and hills may crumble, but my love for you will never end; I will keep forever my promise of peace. So says the Lord who loves you.” (The whole chapter is like a love letter from God)

If you are spending Christmas alone, remember that God is with you - He is your comforter. Find rest in Him.

Psalm 27:10 says:

“Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.”

Matthew 11:28: 

28 “Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. 30 For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.”

I hope the verses have encouraged you today. I have recently watched a 4-Part message by Saddleback Church on why Jesus came to the earth. I would like to share the messages with you. The sermons are on hope, joy, peace and love.  Be blessed.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas xxx

(If you are spending Christmas alone, please watch this message by Pastor Gene Appel)

.

Another incredible message:

I want to look like….Me

Hey guys!

Sorry for my absence, I had a really stressful couple of months at work. As we are approaching, everything has finally calmed down and I look forward to blog more. Watch out for a blog on how to handle stress in the near future. But for now, I hope you will enjoy this post. :)

I have recently noticed, that many young girls and women are envying how other people look like. Especially due to the boom within the beauty and fashion industry, young women/girls are desperately are trying to look like celebrities or women they follow on social media platforms.
I recently, came across a comment, where a girl was obsessing over another girl’s beauty and wished to look like her.

This saddens me, as many girls nowadays think the same way as she did. Most females want to look like somebody else, because in their eyes, they are not as beautiful as the popular girls on Instagram. I will be honest with you - I was one of those girls. I always found other females more beautiful then me and I always wanted to look like them. I always envied their bodies, their skin and hair, because in my opinion they were perfect. I never believed anyone who told me that I was beautiful.

It took me a while to realise, that I was as beautiful as the girls I tried to look like. I overcame this by being confident in my own skin. All you need is to have a healthy body image. Once you feel confident in your own skin i.e. your body, your personality, you will see the beauty within you, just as other people see it. We need to be confident in our own skin and stop envying how other people look. As I mentioned in my previous post - whatever God’s creates is beautiful.

'For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well'. Psalm 138:13-14 NIV

Also remember, beauty comes from within – beauty is not just defined by your outward appearance. You can wear the fanciest clothes and make up, but this all goes to waste, if you don’t feel as beautiful inside. It’s how you feel about yourself that matters.

1 Peter 3:3-4 'Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight'.

The verse confirms it. It is the inner beauty that matters and that’s what matters to God. This also should matter to us. Stop comparing yourself and find confidence in yourself. Be YOU!

Prayer point:
Lord help me to stop comparing myself and trying to look like someone else. I know that I am beautiful, because your Word says so.

From Self-Hate to Self-Love

I struggled with self-confidence from a very young age, which was partially due to me being bullied in primary school up until the beginning of secondary school. Haven grown up in Germany and being the only black person in my entire school, together with the bullying made me insecure about my skin complexion. So at one point, I even tried to bleach myself (it didn’t really work though lol).

Throughout my secondary school time I continued to struggle with my confidence. Unfortunately, it  got worst when I started having crushes on boys, who never liked me in return. I always thought, that if I found a boy that also liked me, I would feel more confident about myself.  Well to my surprise, I was wrong about that, as the guys never liked me for who I truly was. Since dating didn't work, I came up with the idea, that maybe loosing weight would finally help me to love myself. 

Lo and behold, after loosing weight everyone around me wouldn't stop complimenting me on how good I looked, this made me feel beautiful for the first time. However, this didn't last for very long, as I got into a relationship with a guy who constantly put me down. He would never compliment me, but rather complimented my friends in front of me. He always complained about my complexion and figure and he would always compare me to his ex-girlfriends. Before I knew it, I felt even worst about myself, then I did in my younger years.
My low self-esteem even affected my friendships, as I even started comparing myself to my friends and would always complain to them about what I didn't like about myself. One of my friends told me that she never enjoyed going shopping with me, because I would always get grumpy, whenever I felt that certain clothes looked better on her.  Ironically, around that time I was heavily into reality TV shows (which didn't exactly help), where celebrities flaunted their perfectly toned hourglass bodies in every scene. So I never thought that, I measured up to society's idea of beauty. My insecurities held me back in every aspect of my life, as I always worried about what people thought of me and never wanted to draw any attention to myself. I never wanted to breakout of my shell. I finally I had enough, in my final of University, I came to the realisation, that was looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places. That's where I turned to God. 

The closer I became to God the more I realised my self-worth. I stopped worrying about what people thought of me. Few years ago, I would have never imagined to have my own blog, thanks to Christ I have come out of my shell and I am ready to concur the World. As it says in 1 Samuel 16:7(NIV) ‘But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”.’  We should not focus too much on what people think of us. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. We should care about what God thinks of us, not man. God didn’t create us to worry about how we look and as a result go into depression. That’s not the life He chose for us. Start concentrating on yourself and your relationship with God. He will get you through this situation-He did it for me. Whatever God creates is BEAUTIFUL.

Prayer point: Lord help me to overcome low self-esteem. Help me to love myself, help me to see what YOU see in me. For I know that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  

Follow my blog with Bloglovin