Sunday December 21, 2003

Dear Visitor:

We often find ourselves looking backward. Many will say this is nostalgia (a good thing that can go bad). Others will say you will only get a stiff neck! I believe it is a bit of both.

Christmas is one of those times where we look back. Often we yearn for the Christmases past. The ones where we really enjoyed Christmas and found our hearts full of joy and wonder. I believe for many, this may have been a combination of naivety and greed that caused such joy and wonder.

The past many Christmases have been a great disappointment to me. I have spent a great deal of time at each of them thinking about why. I could never quite put my finger on it. More and more, I didn't want the material gifts I received. I didn't want to rush out and buy gifts for others. This greatly disturbed me!

This year, I had Christmas come early. I met a new friend. This friend helped me in many ways. However, the relevant help concerned service to others. This fantastic individual reminded me what it was like to have Charity, the true love of Christ (Moroni 7:42-48), for others. This individual reminded me some ways of showing that love.

This was a rather interesting revelation for me. As a child, my family always had two Christmas trees. One was usually fake, it had all the fancy colored lights, the gifts for each other, the stockings nearby. Santa would also visit this tree. However, in another room, we would have another. This tree was usually a "live" tree. It would be decorated very simply. Usually blue and/or white lights. Occasionally, there may also have been blue glass bulbs (balls) on this tree, but usually not.

This last tree is the tree of interest. As a family we would pick things we wanted to change about ourselves, as a group. We would do this by finding scriptures in the LDS Standard Works that covered the given trait we were wanting to gain or lose. We would do this every night for 12 days, ending, I believe, the night before Christmas Eve. Each night we would read the scripture for that night, wrap up the reference and put it under the tree. On Christmas Eve, we would open them up, one by one. We would read the scriptures and talk about what we were doing to do better. Inevitably, my mother would put a reference for Moroni chapter 7 under the tree. This chapter is about charity.

Most years, we would also do the 12 Days of Christmas for at least one family. We would find people we knew who were struggling in one way or another. For the 12 Days before Christmas, we would buy, make or find the things they needed or that would help them. We would deliver them. We never let anyone know who it was. This was very important. (The friend mentioned above thought no one did, but I know people who do.)

I spent the day before Thanksgiving and after giving service at a soup kitchen and gift collection facility, respectively. Through this and a conversation concerning what my family did when I was a child for Christmas helped me to realize why I stopped caring about Christmas. Christ, love and charity had gone out of the holiday in my life. It was less than nothing. It was greed.

This year I am trying to do differently. I am trying to spend more time with friends and family. I am also trying to find ways of serving others; preferably without being noticed. I am trying to put Christ and charity back in my holiday season.

So, if I am trying to do this quietly, why mention it here? Because, I think in this overly secular world, we can all do with a bit of reminding. We can all have a spark of love and charity put into our hearts.

My prayer for you all this Christmas is that love and charity will fill your hearts and lives. May you and yours have a wonderful season together full of peace, harmony and joy.

Sincerely, Trever Adams

P.S. Never be ashamed to help another. Never hide your kind or gentle nature. You never know who you will touch nor how far the good consequences will go. Thank you very much to that fantastic friend who touched me; who helped to reawaken my heart and my love of Christmas.