When I was young, my mother and dad made every Christmas wonderful. Lots of cookie baking, present wrapping and closets temporarily off limits as gifts stacked up. There were many family gatherings, youth group sled rides and bonfires.
Then we had to grow up. The responsibilities of adulthood became our norm and visions of bills due and end of year wrap-ups replaced visions of sugarplums, wishes and dreams.
Recently Joyce Meyer and several other men of God reminded me how to escape the pond of despond at this time of the year. Yes, even this optimist is prone to sink into doom and gloom. I thought I would take this post to share this timely reminder as an encouragement to you.
Be stable. Show the world your ultimate hope is in God and you will continue to trust him despite your present circumstances. Be good to others. Be the bearer of good news. Focus on the positive. And keep doing what is right.
Give yourself permission to keep things simple this year. Pray about what small thing you can do for others. I have found the solution to my heartache is doing for others. Takes the focus off myself and helps to put things in perspective.
Count your blessings, name them one by one...
Remember the things God has done for you. List them off and realize, He is still able to deliver you. The old testament saints practiced this by telling and re-telling themselves and their families their spiritual history. Sit your family down and do the same.
If you or someone you know and love is standing in the need of prayer, let us know in the comments and we will be glad to pray for you. We can get through this time with the aid of one another. And perhaps we might exhibit to the world what is the real reason for the season.
...and they will know we are Christians by our love one for another.
