Less is more.

Have you ever eaten a bag of corn chips with tears in your eyes? I have. And it wasn't because the chips had onions in them. Why all the emotion?

For some years our family lived outside the United States. During that time we had to go without many of our favorite foods. Topping the list of what I missed most were corn chips. Every few years an overseas missionary is sent back home for a little breather and to stock up on necessities. I well remember coming home to America and rushing to the local supermarket to buy a big bag of corn chips. Yes, I must confess that during those first few bites, I was just a bit misty-eyed. Can you believe that of a grown man--a preacher, no less?

Before we left home to return to our overseas mission post, some of my friends gave me bags of corn chips as gifts.

Years passed, and our family finally returned to the States permanently. Guess what? I don't feel the same way I used to feel about corn chips. Oh, I still like them, but it's just not the same. Something has changed, and it's not the chips. What's so different? Well, now I can eat corn chips anytime I want--24-7 as they say.

I made the surprising discovery that the "blessing" I used to receive from eating corn chips was not in their abundance, but in their scarcity. In other words, I derived more joy and pleasure from eating the chips when they were a rare treat and I knew I wouldn't be able to savor them as often as I liked.

Jesus, our Great Physician, once offered a prescription that, if filled, will greatly enhance the quality of our lives. But be warned, this prescription flies in the face of what contemporary culture seems to be shouting at us everywhere we turn. "A quality life comes only when you have a quantity life. The more you have, the happier you'll be." Right?

Jesus says, "Wrong."

Consider His prescription for our overindulgent generation. "Take heed and beware of covetousness," He says, "for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses," (Luke 12:15) *. Experience will prove Him right. A quantity life and a quality life rarely blend together.

During one of our Christmases overseas, money was so scarce that family members handmade gifts for each other. My oldest daughter--then a preteen--made a pair of slippers for her mother. The cardboard soles were designed to be held on the foot by a ribbon. Needless to say, they didn't work. But it was the thought that made that gift precious. It was the same for all of the newspaper-wrapped treasures lying at the base of our little tree.

If you were to ask our children which Christmas was most memorable, they'd likely say it was that one. What made it unforgettable? Not the quantity, but the quality. True happiness doesn't depend on how much we have. It revolves around how much we appreciate what we have.

During this season of the year we're given the opportunity to make a choice. Which will it be in your house: quantity or quality?

Inevitably, the New Year will reveal that some of us have put on an additional pound or two and, perhaps, dropped a little deeper into debt. But take it from an ex-missionary. This holiday season can be the most memorable ever if we'll simply follow the advice of our Great Physician and remember that a person's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he or she possesses.

Make this holiday season memorable, not because of the food or gifts, but because of what really matters--relationships, particularly family relationships. Concentrate not so much on what you can do for each other, but rather what you as a family can do for those who don't enjoy the same blessings that you take for granted.

This time of the year embodies a national day of thanksgiving for all that the Almighty has done and, a few weeks later, the World's greatest birthday of all. As you're making plans, checking lists, and signing cards, may I suggest that you take time to read as a family the Presidential Declaration of Thanksgiving (see next page), and on Christmas Day the story of the virgin birth (Matthew 1 and 2).

Why not invite someone over on Thanksgiving who doesn't have a family? Then take your youngsters shopping for children who'd otherwise enjoy no Christmas at all. How can kids learn to be thankful or how to share if they grow up believing that the season is all about them? Fifty years ago most children had only five toys. Today, by the age of 5, most have dozens.

If our quantity lives are keeping us from enjoying a quality life, let's make this season unforgettable by filling Christ's prescription and spending the holidays being a blessing to others.

THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION ON 1789

Now therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States, to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks or His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of asquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereign and nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us); and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

President George Washington

* Bible text are from the New King James Version 

Richard O'Ffill writes articles and books and eats the occasional corn chip in Longwood, Florida.