{"id":6798,"date":"2014-12-25T06:00:58","date_gmt":"2014-12-25T11:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=6798"},"modified":"2014-12-19T08:46:43","modified_gmt":"2014-12-19T13:46:43","slug":"merry-christmas-the-gift-of-a-lifetime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2014\/12\/merry-christmas-the-gift-of-a-lifetime.html","title":{"rendered":"Merry Christmas! The Gift of a Lifetime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freedigitalphotos.net\/images\/agree-terms.php?id=100152931\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-6800\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2014\/12\/ID-100152931-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"ID-100152931\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>MERRY CHRISTMAS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">I had to laugh as I watched the commercial. A woman and man were running towards each other just like you see in an old romantic movie. But as they get nearer and nearer, arms stretched out ready for an embrace, they by pass each other. The woman&#8217;s face drops, she cries and looks distressed. As she lifts her head, a red sweater is hanging on a clothes line in front of her. The tag line, &#8220;The man may leave you, but the sweater never will!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Hardly a Hallmark moment!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">But the idea that a gift can bring you joy is only true for a moment. More is needed for continuous joy! And there is one\u00a0gift that lasts for a lifetime and brings comfort and joy. It&#8217;s not the sweater!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">My mom&#8217;s Hummel Nativity scene greets you when you walk in the door. I love this time of year. The house is lit up with lights, candles glow in the evenings, and the fireplace warms the house as we enjoy the beauty of the tree. But the manager scene is front and center as a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas. It is the reason we are joyous.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">God gave us a gift, HIs Son sent as\u00a0a baby.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This gift is not for one\u00a0year, but lasts for all the years to come. And this gift continues into eternity. It is the gift of eternal life spent with God.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">No dream destination can match this prize. No sweater, car, new gadget or money can bring such comfort and joy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Today, on Christmas, receive the gift of God&#8217;s Son. It is freely given. JOY TO THE WORLD, THE LORD HAS COME!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MERRY CHRISTMAS I had to laugh as I watched the commercial. A woman and man were running towards each other just like you see in an old romantic movie. But as they get nearer and nearer, arms stretched out ready for an embrace, they by pass each other. The woman&#8217;s face drops, she cries and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[914,916],"tags":[398,3137,715,3138,3139],"class_list":["post-6798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-relationships-2","category-god-relationship","tag-christmas","tag-gift-giving","tag-jesus","tag-son-of-god","tag-true-meaning-of-christmas"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Merry Christmas! The Gift of a Lifetime<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2014\/12\/merry-christmas-the-gift-of-a-lifetime.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Merry Christmas! The Gift of a Lifetime\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MERRY CHRISTMAS I had to laugh as I watched the commercial. A woman and man were running towards each other just like you see in an old romantic movie. But as they get nearer and nearer, arms stretched out ready for an embrace, they by pass each other. The woman&#8217;s face drops, she cries and&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2014\/12\/merry-christmas-the-gift-of-a-lifetime.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-25T11:00:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-19T13:46:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2014\/12\/ID-100152931-300x198.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Merry Christmas! 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Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6801,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6798\/revisions\/6801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}