Christmas Cards with a Purpose

The Christmas season is over, and you find yourself with a stack of beautiful, carefully designed Christmas cards from family and friends. If you are anything like me, you have a hard time just throwing them in the trash. I used to store them in a special container, and they might get glanced at the following year when I put a fresh batch in. It felt like such a waste. 

  Last year, a friend suggested punching a hole in each card and using a ring clip to keep them together. This at least helped to keep the years sorted, and made me feel like it was more of a memento than just "stuff" I was keeping. Somewhere along the line, though, it took on a new meaning.

  These were some of our closest family and friends. They are the people we choose to do life with, those who are closest to us. Shouldn't they mean more to us than just being thrown into a box? So, I hung the ring clip up near the calendar in our kitchen. Every week, I would flip to a new Christmas card, and then I spend time each week praying for that family. It became a great way to be intentional in praying for all of our family and friends throughout the year, and not just when there was a specific prayer request. I sometimes send a message to the friend that week, and do you know what always happens?

   God showed off. When I randomly stuck that family's card on the clip, He knew exactly what would be going on in their life the week I prayed for them. Whether they needed to know that they were not alone, or if they just needed a vote of encouragement, God used the prayer.

   Putting the cards on the rings costs virtually nothing (I think I got 5 rings for $2 at Walmart), and prayer is the most powerful thing we can offer our family and friends. Why not extend the giving of  the Christmas season to the rest of the year?