Twas the week before Christmas and all through the home, everybody was stirring as to the mall we must roam… When our children were young, the week before Christmas always signaled our family’s full thrust in the personal experience of the Christmas season.
By this time all the hours of time and energy that we had put into the church Christmas production had come to fruition as we always tried to schedule the show on the weekend before the church kids were out of school for the holidays. I usually took this week off from my secular job as well, so that I could focus my attention on the family’s Christmas celebration.
The first matter of business entailed the mandatory trip to one of the malls to complete (or better yet, to start and complete!) our shopping for presents. I found that as I got older I began to enjoy this trek less and less. Instead of relishing the pleasures of all the holiday decorations, the smiling faces in the stores, the Santa stage, the Christmas train and all the other seasonal delights, I found myself dreading the traffic on the roads, the game of circling the parking lot like a bird of prey waiting to dive into the first open slot, and then the long lines of shoppers awaiting their turn to spend their hard earned cash. What had happened to me? As a kid and into my early thirties, I always looked forward to the whole shopping experience. Now it was beginning to haunt me like a bad dream!
Looking back, I can see that I allowed the pressures of life to rob me of the peace and joy of the greatest event of the year! Yes, Christmas can be a very stressful season with all the demands that come with it, but that doesn’t mean that I had to let those outside pressures change my attitude. By Christmas day, I would be so tired that I could only give my kids about half the attention that they desired as they tore into the gifts under the tree.
With my new found outlook on life over the last few years of expecting good things to happen to me, I am beginning to take charge of how I experience or you could say “celebrate” life! This Christmas will be very different from all the other celebrations for my wife and I, as our kids are literally spread around the country and won’t be with us on Christmas day. But you know what… my wife and I decided today that this will be the best Christmas that we have ever had, because we are expecting great things. I don’t know yet what they will be, but I do know that it is going to be GREAT!
How about you? What is your attitude as you make your way into this week before Christmas? Don’t let disappointments and or the pressures of life steal your celebration of the most special time of the year. Do you realize that this is the only time during the entire year that complete strangers around the world will smile at each other and reach out to help others in need? Be a part of the holiday cheer, trust in your foundation and enjoy the peace and joy that the angels spoke out to the shepherds tending their flocks on that lonely hill in Bethlehem
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