What's YOUR Focus this Christmas?

Well, I can't believe it! Christmas is already so close and we're already deep into the month of December! Before you know it, New Year's will be upon us. Let's look at the "days till" section, then we'll look at some movie updates and then we'll look at my latest article.

It is: 8 days till Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie is released!

It is: 13 days till Christmas

It is: 20 days till New Year's

Now, these aren't really updates, per se, but several clips related to the upcoming movie, Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie (or WWD for short) have been uploaded onto YouTube and you may view them below. (Keep in mind that they don't share the Creation world-view as we do) Hope you like them:

Seeing these clips really makes me excited about the film. Remember, if you want to see Walking with Dinosaurs, it comes out in theaters on December 20, 2013. I can't wait!

Now it's time for this week's article focusing on Christmas, written by yours truly:

Christmas came last year, and it’s already coming back! You know what’s interesting? When you ask a lot of people what Christmas is all about, many people including non-Christians could say something like: “Jesus Christ is the reason for the season!” And this is very, very true, as Christmas is Jesus’ birthday (at least, that's when it's celebrated). But that leads us to a very personal question: “What do we do for Jesus’ birthday?” If we were honest, most of us would probably say that we’re either visiting family members and/or giving gifts. But what do we do for Jesus HIMSELF for His birthday?

Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, but if we were honest, many of us would say that we don’t really do much for Jesus on His birthday. Now technically, we don’t know the exact date Jesus was born on, but we celebrate it on December 25^th. So why don’t we really do anything special for His birthday? Perhaps it’s because we’re too focused on ourselves and each other!

While the giving of gifts to each other is not bad in and of itself, we really should be focused on the One who’s birthday it is. This may seem weird to some, but let’s make this a little more applicable – say your birthday falls on May 1^st, the same as celebrity Jamie Brinton. Now, let’s just say that instead of celebrating your birthday, you celebrate Jamie’s birthday and yet you hardly know the guy (and that’s saying something because a celebrity by the name of Jamie Brinton doesn’t exist, but you get the picture, right?)! That wouldn’t feel very good for you, would it? Well, this is sort of what we do with Jesus. We do things for each other, when it's not even our birthday.

Granted, gift-giving, Santa Claus and other things we typically associate with Christmas aren't bad, but we should be primarily focusing on Jesus Christ this time of year.

This year, I'd like to challenge everyone to do something different. That's why my family and I recently produced a Christmas play entitled, "Meet the Cheatham's". The goal of the production was to get people to stop and think what or who they were focusing on this time of year, whether it be presents, decorating, Santa Claus or Jesus Christ. In the play, my family portrays a wealthy family known as the Cheatham's; their only concern is to use the Christmas season to make more and more money . . . until they decide to go to church, intending to make a profit. I don't want to give the ending away, so I won't describe anymore of the plot.

Now don't get me wrong, I totally enjoy Christmas decorating, giving and receiving gifts, Santa Claus and many other Christmas traditions; these aren't bad. They just shouldn't be the focus of the Christmas season.

So I'd like to encourage you readers, this Christmas and the Christmases to follow, to use Christmas to actually put Jesus as the center of attention at His birthday! The changes you make, whether big or small, still make a difference - for some it might be gift-giving on another day instead of December 25 (like my family is doing), or doing a Bible devotion on the true-meaning of Christmas before opening presents. Instead of focusing on ourselves this Christmas, let's focus on Jesus and also give Him what He wants for His birthday. What does He want? All He wants is us; He wants our time and attention given to Him on Christmas, since it is His birthday and all.

My family has decided to dedicate this day to the Lord. Now let me leave you today with the following question: what's YOUR focus this Christmas season?

Jesus Christ should be the main focus of Christmas for us, because only HE is what Christmas is all about!

PS 1: To post a comment (this is highly encouraged), please simply click the post you wish to comment on, scroll to the bottom of the page and put what you wish to say or ask in the comment box. Then in the box below the comment box choose who you’re going to comment as. And then click preview or publish. If you aren’t signed into Google, you’ll be asked to type in a word and a number in the space provided. Type the word, put a space and then put the number. Then your comment is on the blog!

PS 2: Have a puzzling question about animals (including dinosaurs), myself, my latest book, my stop-motion movies, Creation or etc? Please post your question as a comment or send me an email at animaladventures@aol.com.

PS 3: What’s the new in the news? Check it out at SMILEY’S NEWS.