By Bev Davis/REGISTER-HERALD SENIOR EDITOR

"At Christmastime we all say things like, it's not about the gifts, but giving, and, this year we want to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. But if you're like me, we find it hard to actually do anything different than last year," Hamlet Smith of Life Strategies in Beckley said. "Maybe we're afraid of what other family members would say if we take the initiative to actually put more meaning into Christmas."

"Even though the birth of Christ is not recorded on a particular date historically, I think it's good to put aside a day to celebrate Emmanuel - God with us," Smith said.

He offered three practical ways to make that happen.

- Gift-giving can be a part, but need not dominate our thoughts about Christmas. This is the one we all know; yet it seems year after year it happens. We are a market-driven economy that markets far more heavily at this time of year than any other. Retail stores look to this time to make up the majority of their sales. It is a well-documented fact. We are out of control. Perhaps the most obvious way to put the true meaning of Christmas in our thoughts is to spend time every day reading Scriptures about Christ's coming to our family. These "Advent" (coming) passages are in the first part of Matthew, Luke and John. Plus with some guidance you can find some very obvious references to Christ in the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah.

Ask your pastor what passages he/she uses with his/her family daily before Christmas. If your pastor doesn't know or doesn't celebrate the word with his family, ask someone else's pastor. It's worth finding out. Search for the bargain of wisdom, and hang on to it when you get it.

- Work harder on the inside stuff than you do on the outside stuff. Celebrate with lights, deck the halls and trim the tree, but let who you are on the inside be more important. Jesus pronounced woes on the Pharisees for cleaning the outside of the cup so it looks good, but ignoring the cleanliness of the inside. (Matt 23:23-28) Woe to us if we are just trying to look good, but aren't trying to be good. Meditation, Bible reading and prayer are just the beginning of the ways we can make sure the inside is prepared. "We have no time" is the rallying cry of desperate people. It's definitely a sign that something is amiss. We have to redeem the time we have because the days are evil. Evil is forcefully advancing, and if we don't take our destiny in our hands, then we will definitely be swept away in the tidal wave of evil.

- Love the person of Christ, not just the idea of Christ. Religion is a good thing, but by itself it's empty. We hear the cry to be giving and to give. But if we are primarily giving materially ... this is truly tragic. We all have seen the devastating effect of a father who has "given their children everything," but refused to give himself. Let's make sure we've got something worth passing to our children. If we have immersed ourselves in a relationship with Christ, we have something worth giving. Let's give ourselves. Let's read together, play together and eat together. But first let's connect to our Father in heaven so we have a relationship worth passing on to others.

"The best things in life don't come easily, but they do come if we seek them. Seek the God of Christmas. This is the only way to succeed. Plan to succeed," Smith said.

- E-mail: bdavis@register-herald.com