12 Ways To Keep Spiritually Strong Over Christmas Break, Pt. 2
by on Dec 8th, 2009 at 12:26 am
Here are some more suggestions for making your Christmas break a time of spiritual growth instead of struggle or defeat:
Suggestion #4 - Write Christmas Cards
While I was at college, I developed many strong and sweet friendships with men and women who were positive spiritual influencers. Part of my holiday struggles came from the fact that I left an environment where I could easily find one or two of these friends and engage in a meaningful activity or conversation to an environment in which I might be around such people only once or twice a week. The loneliness or lack of passionate disciples of Christ throughout the majority of my days could have been discouraging, but the activity of writing Christmas cards was a way to keep the connections strong.
Whether you have money to buy a pack of cards or can only afford to use blank paper, get the addresses of your friends before leave school, bring a pen home with you, and write one or two letters each day throughout the break. Don’t type them or e-mail them, write them with your own hand.
Letter-writing is a lost art today, and we are not the better for it. When you write with your own hand, the process takes longer, and that is the point. You become more engaged in the process of thinking about the person and what you want to communicate to them. Just thinking about them can bring to mind the encouraging words or actions that they have given to you over the course of your friendship. A quick text, tweet, or e-mail will not give you time to think this deeply about them. By slowing down to write (and with three or four weeks of break you will have plenty of time to go slow), you make your message more personal and provide them an encouraging shot in the arm when they get something in the mail that was never expected. Finally, you will find that investing this time and effort to talk to friends that are spiritually encouraging to you will cause that sense of accountability to remain vibrant.
Suggestion #5 - Read a Good Book
Reading a book for class is far more painful and tedious compared to reading for pleasure or personal interest. During Christmas break, you will have several weeks, and perhaps a gift card or two, to invest in a book that spiritually beneficial or intellectually intriguing to you. Get that book and dive in. During some breaks, I read spiritually engaging books while on other breaks I felt the need to explore books that indulged the history buff in me. In either case, you are being intellectually productive and setting the mind upon something other than self-pity, online war games, or non-marital sexual indulgence is better for you than the alternative. I know that you are on an academic break and learning seems to be a violation of the rules, but a book can get your attention and set it to productive means.
Think of reading as the intellectual equivalent of diet and exercise. People who are physically fit for a long period of time (over a year) will tell you that there is really no trick or gimmick that can lead to a healthy body except for the tried and true practice of eating well and exercising the body. A healthy mind needs to exercise on arguments, counterarguments, new ideas, foundational ideas, and even works of the imagination. Reading is a gateway to any and all of these, so just read something that is compelling to your rather than your professors for a change!
Suggestion #6 - Reconnect with Spiritually Encouraging Friends
Some of you might be leaving the majority of your Christian friends when you leave school, but others might be returning to an environment where God-honoring friends are still close. I was blessed to have strong friends at school and at home. If you have any such friend, the kind of person that will challenge you, keep you accountable, encourage you in your walk with Christ, make an effort to reconnect with them and hang out during your break.
The reason behind this suggestion should be obvious, but a God-honoring friend is a gift of our Kind Father that we should never despise or neglect. Since you left your home in August or September, much has changed in your life and the lives of your friends. You have plenty of catching up to do, and Christmas break can be a great time to enjoy some of the “good old days” before you graduate and the carefree days of high school and college become a memory.