Confession time: Sometimes I just don’t “feel” Christmas. I mean I love Christmas. I love everything about Christmas: the decorations, the baking, the eating, the wonder, the true meaning…everything. But there are days, when I just don’t feel it. Instead, I feel the extra work, the extra stress, the extra money spent, and the extra people in all the parking lots!
In my times of “not feeling it,” bitterness creeps in saying, “Why do we have to do this? Why have we let Christmas turn into this commercialized mess?, Can we just opt out for a year?”
But then I remember that faith is not a feeling, and Christmas is really all about Christ. So, I will tell my bitterness to take a hike, and I will ask God to fill me with Himself. When I am not “feeling” the world’s Christmas experience, I will cling to God’s word and read about the real Christmas experience.
I will ask God to keep me focused on what He has already done, instead of all that I still have to do. I will seek His peace, in the midst of the shopping storm. And I will ask the Lord to be sweeter to me than anything I could ever bake.
Praying that we all enjoy a Christmas spent in His presence, seeing Him in the everyday moments (even if we aren’t feeling all warm and fuzzy while hunting for a parking place at the mall!)
Jennifer Bleakley
Animals are my love language. Sharing stories of hope is my passion.
