The Christmas season is often hectic. It seems that this time of year has almost become synonymous with busy-ness. Decorating, cooking and baking, shopping, scheduling out holiday events...all wonderful activities that can bring us together with family and friends. Yet all of this hubbub has the potential to drown out the deeper meaning of the season. Sometimes it almost feels challenging to find Jesus in Christmas.

As parents, it's worth asking ourselves, "What are my children learning about Christmas through the way I approach the holiday? What am I communicating, directly and indirectly, about the meaning of Christmas?"

Early one Monday morning as a principal, the Holy Spirit grabbed my attention. It was a Monday like any other during that season of my life. I went into my school's staff lounge to place yellow slips into the mailboxes of teachers that had not yet submitted their lesson plans for that week. I'll never forget: as I placed a yellow slip into one math teacher's mailbox this particular morning, it was as if the LORD stopped me and said (though not audibly), "Larry, where is your plan? You want your teachers to have lesson plans, but where is your plan for your own life, your spiritual development, your marriage, your parenting, and the discipleship of your own children?"