It's Christmas Time!

If I’m completely honest, instead of sitting down with a nice mocha or cup of tea, today I’m partaking of TheraFlu and EmergenC. What a blessing that my lack of a voice doesn’t affect my typing fingers! In addition, what a wonderful blessing to know that God never suffers from laryngitis. He will never have something that needs to be said and yet, be unable to speak it. The question is- will you listen when He speaks?

On another note, who else loves to create an annual Christmas newsletter or special card to send out? I’m not kidding when I tell you that one of the things I most looked forward to about my first Christmas as a wife was being able to send out Christmas cards. Bryan successfully talked me down from the “newsletter family” ledge for now, although I still fondly remember my mom asking me to give her the highlights of my year so she could include them in our family newsletter. Regardless, I guess it’s cuter to read about a 5-year old, rather than a 25-year old. This year I genuinely started thinking more deeply about Christmas cards and newsletters. It seems as though so much of the focus has become “self” and so little of the focus has been on “Him”. I don’t think it’s wrong for us to get updates on each other’s lives via Christmas newsletters, but how real are we being in those perceptions? I have to be honest and say I’m not always transparent with how our year has really been as I create our card. I leave out some of the discouraging details and scummy situations we’ve been faced with, in order to appear perfectly put-together. You’ll find a nice little picture of our wonderful dog, Riggins, on that Christmas card, but you won’t find the caption reading, “The cause of some marital strife and disagreements”. Next to the picture of Bryan and I at a friends’ wedding you will not read “This picture taken right before a classic case of discord”. I am the chief of sinners when it comes to plastering on a smile and acting as though all is right. However, the Lord has been working on me in this area recently, and especially now, around the Christmas season. When I see family that I haven’t seen in a while is it my general goal to let them know how happy I am and how much I’ve accomplished the past year? Or is it my goal to communicate with them the brokenness of my life and the redemption of my Savior who works it all to my good and His glory? I am challenged to take the focus off of myself and put it onto the Savior in my interactions this year, in a much more intentional way. 

Merry Christmas, from my family to yours!


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