{"id":3947,"date":"2019-12-23T10:44:41","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T15:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/?p=3947"},"modified":"2019-12-23T10:49:31","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T15:49:31","slug":"on-the-mantle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/2019\/12\/23\/on-the-mantle\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Mantle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

It was there sitting on the mantel, painted in muted hues of browns, the tattered linen of a poor family huddled together for all to admire. A representation of the Christ child and family that we bring out each year to gaze upon and reminisce about Christmas\u2019s of yesteryears and worry about Christmas, present.<\/h6>\n
Is it just a symbol, has it become a relic of all the different decorations we bring out and store away when the celebration is over? Will Christmas stay?<\/h6>\n
These are things I think about in the early morning hours\u2026the time when no one is rushing about\u2026the house is quiet and I\u2019m awake.<\/h6>\n
I hear the soft whisper of the Holy Spirit\u2026say, \u201cNow that you can hear me come away with me and pray\u2026\u201d<\/h6>\n
Do you seek out and listen to his still small voice in the horrific, mind boggling, frenzy of the season? Is life so busy that you can\u2019t seem to catch a moments breath to stop and be still and talk to the ones in your life who really matter?<\/h6>\n
Are you frantically searching for those perfect gifts so that everyone will be thrilled to open on Christmas morning\u2026? Has the season become a hurricane of do this, get that, did you remember to do\u2026do I have enough time to buy and bake and wrap\u2026blah, blah, blah\u2026has all the joy of what\u2019s important become a debt-infecting, rat-race\u2026? When the storm settles and it\u2019s all over will you be crying because you now have a mountain of debt to pay back\u2026?<\/h6>\n
Where is Christmas?<\/h6>\n
The Christmas I grew up knowing no longer exists\u2026like the painted figures on the mantel, it\u2019s only a representation of what once was. It\u2019s the new and improved Christmas. There are apps and high-tech fiber trees, store bought candy and toys, toys, toys for all good little girls and boys.<\/h6>\n
My how the world progresses\u2026and yet\u2026<\/h6>\n
There is still hunger in the world. There is still poverty and war and incurable disease. I suppose for a little while the \u201cmagic\u201d of Christmas makes us forget\u2026but the day after Christmas reality sets in, then, what?<\/h6>\n
Oh, yes\u2026the New Year, St. Valentine, St. Patrick, Easter and the treadmill continues rolling around and around we go\u2026it has no end\u2026<\/h6>\n
So, in that case\u2026stop for a moment\u2026listen to the Holy Spirit in the stillness of the morning and listen to him say\u2026 \u201cNow that you can hear me, come away with me and pray.\u201d<\/h6>\n
Remember and think about this when you look at the figures on the mantel\u2026<\/h6>\n
Luke 2:10-11 King James Version (KJV)<\/strong> And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.<\/em>
\nFor unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.<\/em><\/h6>\n
~Marla Shaw O\u2019Neill December 23, 2019<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was there sitting on the mantel, painted in muted hues of browns, the tattered linen of a poor family huddled together for all to admire. A representation of the Christ child and family that we bring out each year to gaze upon and reminisce about Christmas\u2019s of yesteryears and worry about Christmas, present. Is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8aPxH-11F","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3947"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3950,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947\/revisions\/3950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}