Christmas! I absolutely love this time of year and only partially because it involves football. I know, this is a spiritual blog, but football is a pretty cool thing God let us have. Anyhow, I have so many memories about Christmas. So many things that make me laugh. I found however, that as an adult, Christmas can become a very stressful time. If we let it, stress can steal away the very moments we are working so hard to create. We talked about this some in the sermon "Ready, set...RELAX", but thought I would highlight a few practical steps and reasons to keep the Christmas free of anxiety. (Yes I am totally aware that I didn't use the X in Christmas like all the cool people do...but hey...I'm old fashioned)
1. Purpose: I find that most of the time if we set out to do something, we generally do, or at least get pretty close. So this Christmas, purpose to be relaxed. Purpose to enjoy those around you! We can still work and plan and accomplish, but just purpose to do it with a relaxed attitude.
2. Simplify: Prioritize the things that are most important for you to get in and why. If all the candles don't match at the table...that's not real important if it causes you to spend less time with the ones you love. Find the things in the past that were most memorable, if nobody remembers the cranberry relish for a good reason...stop making it! LOL
3. Gospel: Christmas is about the gospel. If the gospel is in the front of our minds, we will purpose, we will simplify and we will be thankful. The greatest exchange ever, was when Jesus exchanged his life for ours. Christmas can be about a lot of things, but there is nothing without Jesus.
4. Fun: I believe Jesus would want you to celebrate his birthday by having a lot of fun with each other. Those people around you are part of his gift to you. Enjoy them! Enjoy the gifts that God has given to you. It's not a sin to have fun....so have some.
I could go on, but I am sure you get the point. How we act around this time of year can have a great effect on whether or not people believe that we believe. Make any sense? People all around the world are at least aware of the birth of Jesus during this time of year, if we go around acting stressed out about money and this and that just like everyone else is, it doesn't add credit to what we say Jesus did while here on earth and what we say he has done in us. So Chill out...relax....and enjoy the coming days. We have much to be thankful for.
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