Boy I’m tired, what about you?

Boy I’m tired, what about you?

Local Commentary Well, here it is… Monday is Christmas day, and I don't know about you, but I'm plum tuckered out. Bet you don't hear that phrase very much anymore. In fact, with all this texting, there are a lot of words that you don't hear anymore, and I could use a lot more here that you don't hear very much anymore, like “Thank you, Jesus, for the cross.”

I hope that every one of you has a great Christmas and a lot of good fellowship with your friends and family, because I know I will. Try to think about this being the perfect time for you or someone in the family to mend some frayed relationships and get past whatever that thing was that caused you to be distant from each other in the first place, because this might be the last time that you have the chance.

I know out there somewhere someone will be missing from your Christmas get-together whether it was through death or not being able to get there or for whatever reason it might have been. As you get together and you look around the table or sitting in a room and one of your loved ones isn’t there, it just goes to show how fast time goes and how fast we lose someone that we care about, so when you can always try to be thankful that God let you continue to have that person in your life.

If you are reading this before you get ready to jump head-long into that big ham or turkey with all the trimmings ready to do again what you promised you would not do at Thanksgiving, remember that feeling you had just about a month ago and you had to take that seltzer to get you calmed down some. Try to think about that when you sit down and see all those good things to eat. On a serious note, I do hope that all goes well with your Christmas get-together and everyone has plenty to eat and everyone is so thankful to God that he let you and all of your loved ones that are there with you have one more day together.

When you think about it, we are just a short hop until we start a new year, and not knowing what lies ahead for any of us we need to think good thoughts and be thankful about the ones that are there with you this Christmas because they might not be there this next one. I hope that all the little ones at your house got what they needed and some of what they wanted, and I'm not trying to put a sad feeling on your get together but I do want you think about being thankful simply because there are a lot of people around the world that would love to have some of the scraps from your table, so try to keep that in mind also.

I know that if at your house like it is at most on Christmas day, the young'uns are going to go wild with their playing time with all that noise that they are putting out after they get up and open up all those loud toys and such that old Santa brought them. But also remember you had a lot to do with that, so grab the aspirin bottle and a glass of water and let the day begin.

I know that our minds are running in many different directions during this time of year as it always does, but take a minute and think just what it's all about and that thought will make it be a different time in your life. I know with me through my life I have had just about everything that I either wanted or needed, and most of that feeling comes from God letting me still have all my immediate family still here with me, so I have reached that time in my life where either age or desires have changed me to the point of when I reach this time of year every year, my thoughts tend to think about a little baby that was laid on a bunch of straw in a barn in another country so many years ago, and I think about it being all for me, and that makes a big difference in my life and lets me see Christmas in a complete different way than what I ever did.

So let me say that I hope that everyone of you have a great Christmas and all are well and have plenty to eat and even when the day has gone, start the new day trying to think about that little baby boy that came from God and then grew up and then died on a cross, and it was all for me and you, so try not to ever let that leave the back of your mind. Maybe it is my age, but I know that I think about him so much more now than I ever have, and then the icing on the cake is one day I will get to see him face to face, and oh, what a Christmas that will be. So Merry Christmas and I know that God will bless you and all your love ones in the year ahead if you let him, so you see, it's all up to you.

Bill McFerrin is a West Memphis man with some things to say and a certain way of saying them.

By Bill McFerrin