We have a principle in our home--Whatever we spend on Christmas gifts, we'll give at least that much back to missions, above and beyond our normal gifts to missions.  Believe me, this policy will not only help you keep missions foremost in your minds during Christmas, it will help you control your Christmas spending.  (Or, it could plunge you into bankruptcy if you're a spending maniac.)

I hope you have a budget for how much you'll spend on Christmas gifts.  If you don't have a budget, work one out before the Christmas season gets here.  If you've already bought those presents and can't take them back, work on your Christmas budget for next year.

Too often we're guilty of spending our money on people who don't need the things we're giving.  (What does Scripture say about giving gifts to those who can't pay us back?  Hint: Luke 14:1-24.)  Admittedly, it's hard to break free from the cultural pressures to buy gifts for the people we love.  Frequently, we think our love for these folks can only be properly expressed in the amount of money we spend on a gift. 

But it's not too late to change our habits.  Perhaps we realize the ridiculous amount of money we're blowing on our friends and family.  We could explain to people this year that next year we're planning to spend less money on gifts and more on missions (or other kingdom things that matter).  This may be hard for some of our family to understand, especially if they are children, but it's well worth doing.

Matching our Christmas spending is a simple way we can fulfill Romans 12:1-2 and live according to God's principles rather than the world's.  It's fine to give gifts to those we love, but how many of us can even remember what gifts we received last year?  And how many of us are teaching our children, by our careless spending, how to be hedonistic materialists?

The way we spend money, and the things we buy, say more about our theology than our words.  Giving to missions during Christmas is especially good because it keeps us mindful of kingdom principles, which we lose so easily in the materialism of the holidays.  If we claim to love missions and the kingdom but spend all of our money on material things and never give sacrificially to God's work, we're just fooling ourselves.

If we already have our Christmas spending under control, perhaps we'll want to give an extra love gift to missionaries this year.