To Blessed to Be Stressed
Hello Friends,
Happy New Year to you and your family! A few days into the year and I'm finally getting around to posting anything. I pray that you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones. I'm sure you're excited to see how the Lord will be working in your lives this new year.
Admittedly, I have to say that my holiday season was actually exceedingly stressful. It didn't go how I thought it would go at all, and was rather disappointing. On top of the usual stress of managing holiday finances, finding time to be with two sides of family, and making sure the kids are enjoying themselves; we also had to deal with serious health concerns and losing half of our worldly possessions! I mean it was bananas people! Oh yea......and our car got burglarized! Right in my family's upper-middle class neighborhood driveway. Yea.....they took stuff.
It just seemed like something was against us the entire time! Things just kept happening! We even kept losing important stuff....like everyday (keys....gone, wallet....gone....phone...gone...you get the picture) I didn't get to spend time with some of the family I wanted to spend time with, and absolutely nothing was done the way we always did things in the past. It wasn't a total bust though.
God was (and IS) Good.
In spite of all of the holiday drama, God was still good. We were all together. I think the children enjoyed themselves and were blissfully unaware of all of the craziness going on. We also tried really hard to focus on the true reason for the season......JESUS CHRIST. Im proud that we were able to go through our entire Advent devotional. It wasn't always perfect, the kids didn't always fully listen, some days we had to double up....but something keeps telling me to keep the dialogue going. Maybe it will all click and seep into their hearts some way.
I feel the need to brief you all on my seemingly yucky holiday, because I think that maybe the holidays are stressful for a lot of people. So much to do, and there's so much pressure and such high expectations for the season. It can be easy to be disappointed with how things are going. But take heart mama. You are too blessed to be stressed.
Don't let the devil cloud your mind with all of the things that are expected of you, or all of the things that are going wonky. Stay focused on the most special gift any of us has ever received......Jesus. When your world starts to spiral out of control, take time to breathe. Find a moment to pray, and ask God to help you refocus on Him. He doesn't require a grande holiday affair full of pleasing others. He just wants you to please and praise Him. Focus on this scripture:
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
~ John 14:27 KJV
And did not the Lord send us the Prince of Peace? So maybe this year you'll keep things simple, say no to a few extra commitments, and really spend quality time with your loved ones giving God all of the Glory. You've learned your lesson, and you won't go into this year's holiday season without a survival plan! You're going to be too busy being blessed to be stressed.
Blessings to you all in this new year!
