As we prepare for Christmas celebrations, we are being encouraged to prioritise our activities and enrich our lives, as we bring the curtains down on 2008.

But how do we prioritise?

We should make security the number one priority. Personal safety, as well as the security of family and property, should be our number one priority.

It is often said: "If one thinks that education is expensive, one should try ignorance." Let us not be among the ignorant. We must create a plan of how we will protect ourselves in the event that we are attacked.

Dinner tables

Caring for the less fortunate should be priority number two.

Often during the Christmas holidays, people spend a lot of time and resources on family and friends. Gifts are often purchased for those who can reciprocate; feasts are prepared for those who already have more than enough to eat and so garbage bins are often the recipients of the excesses from dinner tables.

I often wonder how many persons take the time to extend charity to that old man or woman who has no spouse, children or friends to bring him/her cheer. What of the physically challenged, the orphans, the hungry and destitute. These less fortunate may not live in our immediate environs, but we can find them in neighbouring communities, in the senior citizens' or children's homes, prisons, or on the streets (homeless persons). Just look around, you will see them.

Share our blessings

As we celebrate this Christmas, let us be aware of the fact that the 'Christ of Christmas' would make the less fortunate His priority. It, therefore, follows that if we want to emulate Him, we should do like wise.

Let's share our blessings with the less fortunate, thereby bringing immeasurable joy and happiness to their lives and ours this Christmas.

I am, etc.,

M. BRADY

flambingo_12@hotmail.com