What My Parents did for Christmas

My parents did not exactly have the ideal Christmas this year. Neither me nor my brother brought our families home to Texarkana, Texas for reasons beyond our control. This was understandably disheartening especially for my mother, who had not seen her grandson since he was 3 months old. Often when I spoke to my mother she seemed very sad despite my humblest apologies.

So what did my parents do this Christmas that seemed so special to me? This year for Christmas, they got up early and went down to a very small neighboring town called DeKalb, Texas to visit a young girl. This girl’s story is not an uncommon one. She was alone on Christmas this year. She was in a deep state of depression and was having violent, bloody nightmares. Her visits to her psychologist and her anti-depressants only seemed to put a band-aid on her problems. How did she find herself in a story like this?

The young lady that my Parents spent Christmas with had recently had an abortion, and she was suffering from overwhelming pain and guilt. They simply went to tell her that God still loves her and forgives her and let her know that she is not alone.

My parents could have wallowed in the fact that their family wasn’t coming home this year, but instead, they put their feelings aside and put others before themselves. I thank my Parents for their fine example. I still have a lot to learn from them.

What if all of us could put others before ourselves, not just on Christmas, but everyday?