The sound of little voices singing Christmas music conjures up the spirit like nothing else for me. There is something magical and uplifting that comes from listening to children singing about the Christ Baby, a quiet innocence that speaks to the purity of God’s gift to his people. It’s times like those when I reflect on the true meaning of Christmas and my role to play in this life. I think about my own sins and faults and struggle with how to get hold of them. I wonder if we are not missing an opportunity to teach our own children something by way of history. And I consider the future in ways I don’t necessarily the rest of the year.

Now I don’t know about all of you out their reading this, but I am finding it hard this year to see a bright future. And no, not because Barack Obama is President, and not because we are still battling the Islamofascist murderers, and not even because you are more likely to be injured or killed trying to secure an “iPhone 4s” as a Christmas present than you would be if you were driving in the Daytona 500. No, it is because our value system and those things we cherished just a couple of generations ago seem to be fading from memory.

I’m not quite sure what an argument over the public display of a manger scene or what to call a Christmas tree would have looked like back in the days of my parents, or if it would have even taken place. I’m not sure if Americans would have entertained the notion of leaving behind the value set, decency and common sense which provided for the freedom that guarantees the right of the argument itself. And I question whether some Americans today have the same resolve as their forbearers to defend the principles which have guided us through generations of strife and success.

Usually I am able to put aside my pessimism and reach for the good in humanity this time of year. Christmas has always given me hope. Regrettably, and as I take stock of national and international events, it is proving difficult in 2011. I cannot help but tie my faith to this analogy because I feel if we continue to turn our backs on the ideals which have made us who we are, and continue to redefine our successes in terms of just what we have,  inevitably we will continue the backslide into complacency and blissful ignorance up to the point that the America we see is America in name only. At that point, both sides will agree for good or bad, the means we somehow justified led us to the end.

I suppose every generation has its “Great Depression” or “WWII”, and every generation endures the pain of growth in some form or another. America is no different and the road to “Super Power” has not been without bumps. But it occurs to me that our strength has always lied in our collective ability to recognize the good and true things about ourselves and our country. This has allowed us to persevere where other nations have collapsed and or descended into the darkness of indecision and anarchy.

I think what I’m trying to say here is that if I were allowed to give one present to the nation, it would be the gift of clarity, clarity without the filters of unmovable ideology so we might see and more clearly understand the basic tenets of this free Republic which has changed the world for the better, despite the “professors” revisionist “opinion”.

I know this sounds very “pie in the sky” and has a “miraculous” tone to it. But if I have come to understand anything about Christmas, it is that He makes all things possible. So with that in mind, and as I listen to the children singing about the “good news”, I pray that we have not completely closed our hearts and minds and that we would recognize and acknowledge the fundamental issues which have contributed so much more to our current“condition” than I think most would like to admit.

Anyway I’ve gotten off track and don’t want my message for the Christmas Holiday Season to be lost. So please take a moment to remember our Soldiers in harms way and all of their families back home this holiday. God please keep and protect them so they may return to their families when the mission is done. Please also remember those less fortunate and all the parents who will spend their holiday in the hospital by the bed of a sick child.

Please remember the reason for the season and I pray and wish all of you a very Merry, safe and healthy Christmas. I’ll be back before the New Year with my thoughts moving forward…