Fa La La La Lord, Help Me

Every year at Christmas I go into a frenzy.

If you think you've read something like this here before, it's because you have.  I wrote about his very thing a month ago.

Frenzied is not my ideal state of being.  I prefer to do things simply, slowly and deliberately.  I lose track of things when the pace of life speeds up and I overlook a lot of important details, and overlooking details stresses me out.

We decorate the house with twinkle lights and evergreens, buy and wrap gifts, write Christmas cards, attend holiday concerts at school, celebrate with friends and co-workers at parties, and bake cookies. We live out of town from our loved ones, so we also have family get-togethers at home and we travel to visit family during the season.  We always have at least two Christmas celebrations each year with our families, and sometimes three, depending on where December 25 falls on the calendar.

And we do all of this Christmas prep and Christmas celebrating with Christmas music playing in the background.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas.

It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.

Joy To The World.

O Holy Night.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

It’s the noise of the Christmas season, which can be a little screamy.

But this year my attitude about Christmas is a little different.  This year, I decided to be in a good mood about Christmas.  I decided not to let the activities and their attendant worries of Did I do this? Did I buy that? and OH NO, the bills! get to me.  I decided to acknowledge that there is a lot going on, and I prayed about it and asked God to help me out.  I even told my husband that I was doing this.  I needed the accountability.

It worked.  I still feel the busy-ness.  But along with the busy-ness is the peace of Jesus, Jesus who we celebrate this year and every year.  The pace hasn’t slowed, but my heart feels better about it.  And my mood has improved.  I know that this is the work of God.  I know that he won’t allow me to overlook the most important thing about Christmas this year.  I am so grateful for that.  I’m sure my husband is, too.

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She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.   Matthew 1:21 (NIV)