My house is covered in Christmas decorations and most of them are meaningless. But there is one I treasure and unpack reverently each year. This one:
In 1999 I graduated high school and went to Snow College that fall. I had no car, no long distance phone plan, and lived two hours from home. This is not a sob story because I truly loved Snow and flourished the entire time I was there, but FACT: I was isolated from my family and I had to decide what was important to me.
December came and my roommates and I got a Christmas tree and decorated it, but I still felt like something was missing. One day I was shopping at the local Ben Franklin and found a nativity set for $14. (A pretty penny at the time.) I bought it and set it up on top of our TV in our apartment. I remember feeling like it was a decision to make Christ a part of my life forever. And it was a choice I made, not one my parents made for me.
Every year I unwrap this nativity set, I am reminded of my feelings years ago and I smile. It was the right decision for me and I have relied on my testimony of Jesus Christ through difficult personal experiences in the years since. I know He is real. I know He is kind. I know He is loving. And that decision to trust Him was strengthened in an aisle at Ben Franklin's in Ephraim, Utah when I was 19 and trying to decide if I wanted to be faithless or believing.
In 1999 I graduated high school and went to Snow College that fall. I had no car, no long distance phone plan, and lived two hours from home. This is not a sob story because I truly loved Snow and flourished the entire time I was there, but FACT: I was isolated from my family and I had to decide what was important to me.
December came and my roommates and I got a Christmas tree and decorated it, but I still felt like something was missing. One day I was shopping at the local Ben Franklin and found a nativity set for $14. (A pretty penny at the time.) I bought it and set it up on top of our TV in our apartment. I remember feeling like it was a decision to make Christ a part of my life forever. And it was a choice I made, not one my parents made for me.
Every year I unwrap this nativity set, I am reminded of my feelings years ago and I smile. It was the right decision for me and I have relied on my testimony of Jesus Christ through difficult personal experiences in the years since. I know He is real. I know He is kind. I know He is loving. And that decision to trust Him was strengthened in an aisle at Ben Franklin's in Ephraim, Utah when I was 19 and trying to decide if I wanted to be faithless or believing.
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