How will you celebrate Easter?

I believe that life is worth celebrating…
because God is good, all the time
and He is always worthy of praise. 

I especially love celebrating life at Easter and spreading the JOY of Christ
because without the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus,
we would not have eternal life with God, nor would we have peace, joy and love. 

How will you celebrate Easter and the resurrection or our Lord Jesus Christ this year?

How will you spread the JOY of Christ this Easter?

An Easter Brunch or Easter Dinner after celebrating with your church?

An Easter Egg Hunt for the kids?

If you will need to send an invitation for your Easter celebration,
be sure to check out my new Christian Easter Invitation designs that
all contain Scriptures and are now
available for sale at Little Card Company. 

25 Ways to Spread the Joy of Christ this Christmas | Day 4

In my previous post, I shared with you ways to Spread the JOY of Christ this Christmas through verbal communication. The next few posts will be about ideas for Spreading the JOY of Christ this Christmas through your written communication—anything that must be read, whether it be on paper on on your phone or computer screen.

This first idea may seem obvious to some, but I’m going to say it anyway:

Spread the JOY of Christ this Christmas by
sending out Christmas cards that have a CHRISTmas message!

Be very selective in the Christmas card design that you choose, skipping the ones that say “Happy Holidays” for ones that say, “Merry Christmas,” “Joy to the World,” “Happy Birthday Jesus,” or other sentiments that let the receiver know that the reason you celebrate this joyous season is to celebrate the birth of JESUS!

If you have been frustrated over a lack of Christmas photo cards with modern and fun designs that also included an expression of Christian faith, well I have good news for you. A couple of years ago, the women of The Little Card Company were also frustrated with the lack of photo greeting cards with a genuine faith-based Christmas message, so they started their own company to fill that need. 

Here are a few of the Christian Christmas Photo Cards available at LittleCardCompany.com:

*Disclosure: Some of the Christian Christmas Photo Cards shown above  were designed by me and I will receive royalties on any purchases you make.

Also, before you mail your Christian Christmas Photo Cards, pray over them and ask God to bless the recipients in a special way and fill their hearts with HIS joy and peace.

I’d love to hear your ideas and see your photos. Let me know how you are spreading the JOY of Christ this Christmas by commenting below or by posting Joyful Heart Design’s facebook wall. You can also visit the Spreading the Joy of Christ this Christmas facebook page to share your ideas, photos and links, and to get more ideas.

25 Ways to Spread the JOY of Christ this Christmas | Day 3

The ideas I have for you today to help you spread the joy of Christ this Christmas all have to do with being intentional with your communication, both written and verbal communication.

Let’s start with ways to 
spread the JOY of Christ this Christmas 
through your verbal communications.

1.  Face-to-Face: Be sure to wish everyone a “Merry Christmas,” instead of “Happy Holidays!” But let’s take it a step further. In your everyday conversations, as you are out running errands, at work, participating in a hobby or sporting event, doing some Christmas shopping or attending a holiday event, look for ways to share YOUR reasons for celebrating Christmas. Sometimes the best way to do this is to ask others why they celebrate Christmas, or what their favorite thing about Christmas is. After they answer, they will usually ask you the same question. ***  “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” - Colossians 4:6
2. VoiceMail: don’t miss out on the opportunity to spread the JOY of Jesus by crafting a heart-felt, joyful voicemail greeting that people hear before they can leave you a voicemail message. I began recording joyful, God-honoring greetings years ago when we had an answering machine at home, even before mobile phones and voicemail. And I change up my voicemail greeting every month or so, because I get lots of comments on my greetings—comments like, “Your joyful greeting made my day!” or “Love your joyful attitude!” Here is a sample voicemail greeting: “Merry Christmas! You’ve reached JoDitt with Joyful Heart Design. If you’d like me to call you back, please leave your name and number. And remember… Jesus is the reason we celebrate this joyful holiday season!” 
3. Phone Greetings: While you can’t always give as long of a greeting as you can with voicemail, you can still answer the phone with, “Merry Christmas! This is [your name]. How can I help you?,” etc. And you can certainly end your conversation by wishing the caller a “Merry Christmas!” And I haven’t done this, but I have heard of someone who, when a telemarketer calls, listens to what they have to say, and then witnesses to them or asks if there is anything that he could pray with them about. *** “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season;” - 2 Timothy 4:2
4. Prayer: If you encounter someone who is having problems, is having a rough day, or who can’t see any reason to be joyful, ask them if you can pray for them. I find that, at Christmas time, people are more open to being prayed for and are also more open to hearing the good news of Jesus Christ. But  be sure to do it with a servant’s heart, not with an “I’m better than you” attitude.
5. Singing: Without being obnoxious, sing every chance you get, especially during Christmas time. 
   “Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.” -Ephesians 5:19-20 
   Singing has so many wonderful benefits:
1. It is FUN!!! 
2. It can lift the spirit of both the person singing and the person listening. 
   I love this quote from by Buddy from the movie, ELF, “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!”
3. If you are singing songs are God-honoring and give praise to God, this is one of the most powerful types of prayer.
4. The activity of going “Christmas Caroling” can be such a special surprise blessing to those being sung to. But, in my experience, the people in the group doing the “caroling” usually have just as much or more fun as the people they “bless” with their singing. I think it is the “It’s more blessed to give than to receive” principle at work here. 
5. It is hard to think about your problems and be in a bad mood while singing fun songs and/or singing praises to God. 

 I hope you will take these ideas for spreading the JOY of Christ this Christmas and put your own spin on them and adapt them to your life. Tomorrow I will share with you ways to spread the JOY of Christ this Christmas through your written communications.