Advent Challenge Day 21

This challenge is now complete, please feel free to browse all of the 

completed tasks via the Advent Challenge tab.

This task was one which was quite important for me to do for myself. The reason being is that this year has produced a number of people close to me who are going to find at least Christmas this year difficult. There are different reasons why people may find this season difficult, but I have worked out recently that most issues eventually boil down to loss or relationship break down.

There is another reason I wanted to do this task too, because the last two Christmas seasons have not been the most fun for me with one thing and another and I can appreciate people finding the season difficult to bear. I don't want to go into too much detail about specific people I prayed for in this task, although there are a number of them. All I will do is outline the rough ideas behind it, and hopefully it may encourage others to pray for those people in the world who struggle with the same.

The main area I prayed around was the people I know who have lost loved ones this year at some point, the people who will be spending their first Christmas without specific people there to enjoy it with. In addition to this I prayed about those who have lost people in or near the Christmas season in the past or whose loved ones who are now gone had strong connections to Christmas.

As well as this I thought and prayed about those people who find Christmas for other reasons, it could be they have financial problems and can not celebrate in the way they would like, the homeless or those seperated from their families for whatever reason.

I finished up by thinking about the armed forces of Christian families world wide who will be spending Christmas away from their loved ones due to wars or other military engagements. Specifically I prayed for the Children of the members of the armed forces who will miss parents over Christmas and who are unlikely to understand why their parents can not be there.

I know there are many other cases and situations of why people may find Christmas difficult, but it is hard for me to think and cover them all. Yet I have faith that God is aware of it all and although I can not articulate it all into one prayer He knows about it and has something planned for each and everyone who is prepared to accept His help.

The next task in the challenge is going to be task number 4. Help someone in need. Now I am not sure how this task will pan out, but I am at work today, hopefully, and I am sure that some opportunity for me to help someone above and beyond the call of duty will present its self at some point. Until tomorrow, Merry Christmas.