How to manage the Christmas season … not so easy as some might make out.
The holiday starts with Thanksgiving (or even earlier where big box stores are concerned) and hits full stride by December 1.
At first it seems innocuous. Themed music. Brightly colored advertisements. Santa images emblazoned across city buses.
Then your sister calls, asking what you’re getting Mom this year.
You realize gift prices have gone up, your available credit has gone down, and then there’s airfare back home.
And your grandmother wants to know why you haven’t been to see your father since summer … and you envision the family fiasco at Uncle Ted’s last Christmas.
By the middle of the month, you’ve forgotten how much you used to look forward to the Christmas Eve service at church, and your stomach has become a pit of dread.
Here’s some help from Luke 2:7:
“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”
Here’s how this is just like your situation: Mary faced an insurmountable problem over which she had no control. The inn was full up. Legend and greeting card images suggest it was bitter cold with snow littering the paths and streets. What to do with a baby about to erupt onto the world scene?
Talk about dread … who could have it worse than Mary?
Mary took three steps to get her through.
1. She gave birth to her firstborn son.
2. She wrapped him in swaddling cloths.
3. She laid him in a manger.
We know this story. This is the stuff we’ve recited in every school play, heard in yearly yuletide retellings, and read on our annual Christmas cards. Still it makes a point.
Mary, when things felt out of control, did first things first, and moved ahead one step at a time.
That’s how Christmas this year can be successful for you. Take a deep breath. Ask Mom what she would like for Christmas. Call your grandmother … and your father. Remind yourself that Uncle Ted is family, and you can do this one day out of the year.
You’ve got this. You can make this Christmas different, one treasured moment after another.
A white Christmas is about a fresh start. Begin yours today.
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