Category: Holidays and events

What I wish I could give my kids this Christmas

Published December 2018

As I write, it is the beginning of October and time to start thinking about accumulating gifts for various family members for Christmas. The shops are already putting up decorations and the catalogues are flowing in thick and fast.

So many choices, so much stuff, such a lot of gadgets and gizmos. Apparently, according to the US National Retail Federation projections, this year Americans will spend a staggering $600 billion on Christmas, and I’m sure us Aussies are not far behind.

Continue reading

Filed under: Holidays and events, Jody Bennett, Popular culture, Thoughts on lifeTagged with: , , , ,

Weird gifts

What is the worst Christmas gift you have ever received? My colleague’s gran once gave him got a repurposed school blazer with the emblem picked off; and someone else I know got an empty wooden box! My mum was once deeply insulted when someone gave her loo freshener for Christmas!

A Christmas gift might reveal that someone doesn’t really know your tastes or size, or might show that someone only shops the sales. However, how would you like a gift that revealed that someone knew your future?

Continue reading

Filed under: Holidays and events, Jody BennettTagged with: , , ,

Are you suffering through Christmas?

Published Christmas 2018

Most people are familiar with the basics of the Christmas story and the manger scene of baby Jesus in the hay; however, they might think ‘well so what? Even if that is the historical basis for Christmas, it is irrelevant to me now in the 21st century.’

Christmas, to most Aussies, has come to mean presents, food and maybe some time off.

For some, though, it is not even a festive holiday but a hard time. Christmas may bring with it unnecessary debt, unwanted expectations, demanding social engagements and painful memories of family members who are no longer with us or relationships that have broken down.

Continue reading
Filed under: About God, About the Bible, Holidays and events, Jody BennettTagged with: , , , , , ,

What are we waiting for?

Published Christmas 2019

“I just can’t wait to open my presents!” Isn’t that the cry of kids (and some adults!) at Christmas? The anticipation of seeing secret wrapped presents under the tree is often even more exciting than actually finding out what is inside them! We wait with expectation, for weeks, to find out what we will get and to taste the delicious food we specially prepare.

Waiting is hard. Not for Christmas morning, maybe. But life is full of other waiting times; we wait for a diagnosis, for true love, to recover from an illness, to stop hurting, to have children, to get work or to retire.Continue reading

Filed under: About God, Holidays and events, Jody Bennett, Thoughts on lifeTagged with: , , , ,

A Wonder-filled Life

Getty Images

The expression of the little girl in this photo is so delightful! It reminds us that children still have the capacity to be overcome with awe and wonder and excitement, in a way that us cynical and jaded adults seldom experience.

In the modern world where so many mysteries of science and biology have been discovered, where so many disasters and disappointments happen routinely, and where our lives are so busy, it is rare to feel awe.

Continue reading
Filed under: About God, Holidays and events, Jody Bennett, Popular culture, Thoughts on lifeTagged with: , , ,

Welcome to 2023, don’t look back!

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there,” wrote L.P. Hartley in his 1953 novel “The Go-Between.” And so as we take our first steps into the “new country” of 2023 it may feel a bit like emigrating – frightening, yet exciting at the same time. 

Continue reading
Filed under: Holidays and events, Jody Bennett, Thoughts on lifeTagged with: , , ,

Getting Grateful

Christmas 2021

This Christmas, the second Covid Christmas of the world,  it would be easy to focus on the negative – foreign holidays we can’t go on, overseas family that we can’t see, online gifts that are delayed or unavailable. There may also be the more serious issues of a loved one passed or sick from Covid (or some other illness or accident), a lost job, less money due to reduced hours or lockdowns, or relationships that have failed due to enforced distance or smothering closeness.

American author Max Lucado says, “The good life begins not when circumstances change but when our attitude toward them does.”Continue reading

Filed under: Holidays and events, Jody BennettTagged with: , , , ,

Rest for weary mums

Mother’s Day article 2017

I was struck recently, when reading the children’s report cards that “good” is no longer good enough; “satisfactory” just isn’t; and “average” is almost equivalent to poor. In Australia, “ordinary” has become a slur.

No, now everything has to be “excellent” or “outstanding”, 3 out of 5 is just not acceptable. Even Uber drivers get canned if their ratings fall below 4,5, or so I’ve heard.

Continue reading
Filed under: Holidays and events, Jody Bennett, Thoughts on lifeTagged with: , , ,

Why is it so hard to receive?

Christmas article for 2016

Christmas is the time for presents, of giving and receiving. Children, especially, think that’s actually the definition of Christmas! We may fully expect that our spouses, family and friends give us something at this time of year. But what about other people, unexpectedly?

What if our neighbour, who we hardly know, gives us a lovely Christmas hamper? What if an acquaintance gifts us a really expensive item that they know we need? What if a perfect stranger in the supermarket queue offers us the few dollars that we are short?Continue reading

Filed under: Holidays and events, Jody BennettTagged with: , , , , ,

Don’t become a victim of victimhood

Easter article 2021

Have you ever heard someone disparage the Easter story by saying, “Well how could God have done that to His Son – send Him to the cross. It’s child abuse!”? Besides the obvious fact that Jesus was a 33-year-old man by this stage, and not a child; He Himself refutes this argument when He says in John 10:18

No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.

Continue reading
Filed under: Holidays and events, Jody Bennett, Thoughts on lifeTagged with: , , , , ,