As Christmas approaches, it can be easy to get distracted by all the shopping, the decorating, the baking, and the celebrating. Many even see this as added stress to their already too busy life. We can so quickly forget that the true reason for the celebration in this season is the birth of our Savior, Jesus, which brought peace, joy, hope, and goodwill for us all! This is certainly what we all need right now! The good news is that the Christmas Spirit does not hide. It is right in our hearts, but we have to take the time for it.
May you find everything you want under the tree, but most importantly may you find CHRISTMAS!
"Off to one side sits a group of shepherds. They sit silently on the floor, perhaps perplexed, perhaps in awe, no doubt in amazement. Their night watch had been interrupted by an explosion of light from heaven and a symphony of angels. God goes to those who have time to hear him–and so on this cloudless night he went to simple shepherds.” Max Lucado
As Christmas approaches, it can be easy to get distracted by all the shopping, the decorating, the baking, and the celebrating. Many even see this as added stress to their already too busy life. We can so quickly forget that the true reason for the celebration in this season is the birth of our Savior, Jesus, which brought peace, joy, hope, and goodwill for us all! This is certainly what we all need right now! The good news is that the Christmas Spirit does not hide. It is right in our hearts, but we have to take the time for it.
May you find everything you want under the tree, but most importantly may you find CHRISTMAS!
"Off to one side sits a group of shepherds. They sit silently on the floor, perhaps perplexed, perhaps in awe, no doubt in amazement. Their night watch had been interrupted by an explosion of light from heaven and a symphony of angels. God goes to those who have time to hear him–and so on this cloudless night he went to simple shepherds.” Max Lucado
Who knows what Christmas was all about. Charlie Brown, I can carry with me. And there were in that same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night and lo the angel of the Lord came upon them in the glory of around about them. They were so afraid and the angel said unto them, if you're not the whole, she'll go to all people for unto. You was born to stay in the city. Is David a savior Christ. The Lord should be a sign on for you. You shall find him in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
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And suddenly there was with the angel, the multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying glory to God than the highest on earth. Peace Goodwill toward men. That's what the Christmas about Charlie Brown. <inaudible>
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Good morning. Good afternoon. Or good evening. And Merry Christmas. This is episode 35 of the Blue Collar Executive podcast. And I'm your host Lewis Taulbee Jr
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<inaudible>
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Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas perhaps it means a little bit more. Oh, you can not deny the spirit of Christmas. There is no other time of the year. It was such great peace, hope and joy. Even when this world is seemingly gone nuts. Well, I'm certainly in the spirit, so let's go
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<inaudible>
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Oh, how do I love this time of year? Even during a pandemic, I can still fill the joy and piece in the air or perhaps even more. So this year, or maybe it's because people have a little more time to get settled in. Well then again, we've kind of been settled in all of a year. Maybe that was God's plan. I know for me, I'm usually traveling all the way up until Christmas. So it's really nice being home every evening and getting to enjoy my Christmas tree. I'd love to sit by him and sing a few old Christmas songs. The people that can bake are making all kinds of Candy's and goodies on my drive home every night I get to see houses all lit up. And then of course, when I pull into my driveway, I have to put my sunglasses on. Yeah, I'm that guy, you know, the one in every family that thinks he's Clark Griswold guilty, not to be clear.
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I don't think I am Clark Griswold, but he is one of my heroes and the father of exterior illumination have actually exceeded Oak Clark in light count. Now my wife and kids think I'm nuts for doing it every year, but I absolutely love it. It takes me a full week of 10 hour days, but I get out there and crank that Christmas music the entire time. And just to have a blast, I am sure most of you are probably thinking I'm nuts too. And that's okay. It's just my thing. Like everything Christmas it brings back a lot of great memories for me and even gives me a warm feeling of being a child with my mom, my mom. Wow. No one loved Christmas more than her. And I'll tell you exactly why she loved it.
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She loved it because her purpose during her short stay on earth was to bring joy and happiness to people. She absolutely loved giving gifts to everyone decorating to the hilt, and nothing gave her greater joy than watching as kids light up. And we saw all of the gifts under the tree from Santa every single year, I would hug her and say, this is the best Christmas yet, mom. And she would light up and say really? I would say yep, because it was somehow, she always managed to make a great thing a little better again and again. And we didn't have a lot of money. I've told you before a mom and dad worked themselves to death just to keep food on the table, on a roof over our head. But somehow by the grace of God, in the great Kmart layaway plan, we always found more than we ever deserved under the tree every year.
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So when I had a house and kids of my own, I wanted to keep the tradition. Well we're working in a shopping mall. Industry seemed to be a perfect place for me because you may have noticed that we dumped millions of dollars into Christmas decor. Every year we did in the nineties, the mall I was that purchased a brand new decor package. One year my maintenance manager came into my office and said, we need to make some room in the basement. So should I throw out the old stuff? I said, no way I'll take at home. Well, to my surprise, there was a trailer load of skids with light stack tie ready for me. When I left that evening, I brought them home and lit up the house. I don't think there was a square inch that wasn't lit. That was awesome. Maybe not for the neighbors, but it really did light up the entire street.
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The next week I opened our local paper and there was my house on the front page. My wife was so embarrassed, but I was as proud as a Christmas elf following year. Some of my neighbors tried to compete. So of course I had to keep adding. And that's how it all started. Some 25 years ago, I now live out in the country. So no more neighbor's to compete with. I always said I was doing it for my kids, but there are all grown and gone now. And I'm still on the roof every year with my staple gun. So I guess I have no more excuses. I do it because I love to make things just a little brighter this time a year for myself, my family, my friends, and every night. And when we see a car stopped to gaze, it really makes me smile. No, I'm certainly not suggesting that anyone needs more lights or decorations to make their days Merry and bright besides I don't need any more competition.
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My fondest and brightest memories are of Christmas time as a kid. And we didn't have a lot of lights. Dad never did any exterior decor, but Mom illuminated the home with her joy as she danced around the house sitting and its beginning to look a lot like Christmas, as she put up our fake tree, she would wrap it in those big, old multi-colored bulbs that would burn you if you touch them and then cover it from top to bottom with that silver tensile stuff. And that was it. But to me, there was no more glorious sight than the See that go up every year because it meant the Santa would soon be on his way. Oh, in one year she did get me some Snoopy ornaments and I got to put those on every year. Well, I would put them on then take them down and play with them and then put them back up.
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I believe that's where my love for the peanuts began. I still get a little warm and fuzzy Phil. And every time I watched Charlie Brown, I swear, I tell y'all too much. Anyway, that is a good place to start. Right? We were all Linus liftoff first and foremost, we all know that Christmas is a celebration of Jesus's birth. I mean, whether you're a Christian or not, you know, that, that is the reason we celebrate on December 25th of each year. Christ is Jesus and Moss means ceremonial celebration, but it's not just a birthday party that we celebrate. Its what Jesus is coming to earth mint as a line of said it so eloquently. It is tidings of great joy and on earth, peace and Goodwill toward all that is what Christmas is all about.
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And if we will just pause for one day, we will find all of it. We all know that song. Where are you? Christmas why can I find you? Well, I'll tell you why, because you're not stopping. We all stay so busy with the hustle and bustle of our daily lives at it's hard for us to just stop. And then we add having to buy gifts and a 10 holiday parties on top of it just creates more hassle. I hear people all the time say they don't like Christmas. That cannot be true because they've never found Christmas they stay so busy in their work and then consider the gift, buy in just an extra stress on top of their already too busy lives. That's why I say in some weird way, maybe this pandemic will help some of us find more time to really appreciate all the joy and peace that Christmas brings again, no matter what your beliefs are, there is no way you can deny, fill in the spirit of Christmas.
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If you just stop and open your heart, let's start with joy. This explains the light's the gifts. Santa Claus. Yes. Santa Claus. Don't tell me that you no longer believe if you want something that will really make you smile. It just go to your local Mo and watched the kids light up. When they see Santa, you will never find more joy than you will see in their smiles. When they tell the big guy what they want for Christmas and gift giving. Yeah, the Grinch was right when he said that Christmas can not be bought in a store, but the actual giving of a gift does bring great joy and believe it or not, it gives more joy to the giver. I think we would all agree that we get more joy in watching someone open a gift that we give them that opened.
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And one ourselves now don't get me wrong. I love getting gifts. But the point is it's about the action of giving joy. And I can say without hesitation that sitting around that Christmas tree with my family exchanging gifts is the most joyful time of the year. For me, just like the Wiseman showed up with gifts. Perhaps if they didn't, they wouldn't be called Y's, but the gifts were given as tidings of joy. And then of course, when we find Christmas, we find great peace. Have you ever walked outside and just looked up at the sky on Christmas to me, there is no more peaceful time. Its like the universe just stops. There are no Wars, no angry debate. No stress's in that moment.
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There's just a great peace. I wouldn't it be wonderful. If we could carry that peace throughout the year, we would share, save a lot of money on blood pressure. Medications. Finding piece can be the hardest thing to do sometimes, but it is a big part of what Christmas is all about. Peace on earth. Jesus came to give us this peace. A peace of mind knowing that no matter how hard things can get here, even during a pandemic, we have the assurance of knowing that God is with us. See before this night, God, I just watched from heaven. And while it broke his heart CNS down here and turmoil, he couldn't help us because of our sin. So he sent his son down here to be born in that old manger in the little town of Bethlehem.
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Jesus came to whip, evils, Budd, and to save us from our own sins. And as a result, God's spirit, the Holy spirit, the spirit of peace can now be with us. So again, Christmas means peace on earth. It is always here and we can always find it. If we just stop like we do on Christmas. Did you know that there is actually a true surround the world to not fight during Christmas? This truce occurred on Christmas day, 1914 during the world war, during the sun official cease fire soldier's on both sides of the conflict, emerged from the trenches and shared gestures of Goodwill as line have said Goodwill toward men. But this is a true story on Christmas Eve, many of the German and British troops started singing Christmas carols across the line to each other.
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Then at the first light of Dawn on Christmas day, some of the German soldiers came out of their trenches and approach the allied lines. Now this is considered no man's land in a place. You really probably shouldn't go, but they were calling out Mary Christmas. Now at first, the allied soldiers feared that it was a trick, but then when they saw that the German soldiers were unarmed, they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. They exchanged presence of cigarettes and plum pudding and actually sang Christmas carols together. Some of the Germans lit Christmas trees around their trenches. And there was even a documented case of soldiers from both sides playing in a good natured game of soccer together, a German Lieutenant named Kurt <inaudible> wrote how marvelously wonderful yet how strange it was an English officer wrote.
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Thus Christmas the of love manage to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time. Now none of this could ever be explained in the natural, but it's evidence of the Christmas spirit that feels all of our heart's this time a year or one of my favorite Christmas songs is let it be Christmas by Alan Jackson because the lyrics define the meaning of Christmas perfectly. I won't sing it on here, but the chorus says, let it be Christmas everywhere. Let the heavenly music fill the air, let every heart saying that every bell ring the story of hope and joy and peace, let anger and fear and hate disappear. Let there be love that last all through the years, let it be Christmas.
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My friends, it is Christmastime. The bright lights, the beautiful decorations stockings above a cozy fireplace, the exchanging of gifts and the bacon and eating of holiday treats. A little Frank Sinatra sing and some Christmas carols on the radio kissing under the mistletoe watch and all of our favorite Christmas shows put in that milk and cookies out for Santa and seeing the kids' faces light up brighter than the tree. When they rushed to see what he brought on that year, all of these things worked to bring joy, peace and Goodwill to earth. And that is what Christmas is all about. Charlie Brown. I sincerely wish you and your family is a wonderful holiday season and a very Merry Christmas, just Chuck full of peace, hope and joy.
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May you find everything you ever wanted them to your Christmas tree, but most importantly, may you find Christmas? And that concludes another episode of the Blue Collar Executive podcast. I hope you found some value in that or at the very least found it entertaining Merry Christmas, everyone from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much for your time,
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Right?