Gina was excited to open her gifts on Christmas Day. She was filled with excitement as she looked at the mountain of presents that lay in front of her. She read the note on each gift and then tore the brightly-coloured wrapping paper. She would speak out loud with excitement, “Oh a Versace blouse from Uncle!” “Wow, an LV bag from Mom!” She opened a gift from a friend, and she got a pretty shirt probably from Kmart or Target. She wanted to be happy but found herself extraordinarily disappointed and sad with the gift she received. David saw a post on Facebook. It was an advertisement for a Christmas themed graphic novel, and it looked interesting. He clicked on the link provided, and it opened a page to stream the content of the book. As he read through the pages, he found the writing very witty and the artwork well-drawn. He got hooked, and when he got into the middle of the story, he realised that the plot and illustrations became extremely lustful. He had doubts if he should continue reading or not, but for some reason, he couldn’t leave the site. I planned to do a high-protein, low-carb diet for health reasons. Christmas time is challenging for dieters because culture dictates it’s the time to eat and be merry. I decided that I wouldn’t give in to the hype and would stick to my diet because it was the mature thing to do. The Noche Buena feast overwhelmed me, I thought about how I would keep my diet the following year while I feasted on pork skin, cakes, leche flan, etc. It’s so hard to keep social, moral and health standards. I’m pretty sure there are other goals that we fail at aside from the ones illustrated here. For some reason, it’s just easier to lower our standards and do what’s comfortable. The Bible says, Ecclesiastes 7:20 New International Version (NIV) 20 Indeed, no one on earth is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins. It’s just our human nature. We are bound to fail. The sad part about men and women being unable to live perfect lives is that it makes us hell bound. The Bible says, Romans 6:23 King James Version (KJV) 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death is upon us if not for Jesus. That’s why Jesus needed to be born as a man here on earth so that when the time is right, he will sacrifice his life to pay for wages of sin. The more I think about how imperfect I am, the more I appreciate Christmas. It was the day when an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God humbled Himself in love and took the form of His lowly creation so that I would be empowered to overcome death and be united with Him in heaven. It was the beginning of God’s plan to save us so that we can live triumphantly, free of guilt and condemnation. We should celebrate Christmas. It’s a day of hope, faith and love.