Let the rush begin! It’s Christmas!! A million things to do and hardly enough time to accomplish them! Oh dear… better hurry!
If you’re anything like me, Christmas is your absolute favorite time of year! The decorations, Christmas carols, baking, shopping, and wrapping. Really, who has time for rest, right? Well, that’s what ends up happening to me most years. I burn my proverbial New Yankee Christmas Cookie Candle at both ends, and feel utterly exhausted heading into the home stretch of the Christmas season!
As I opened my daily devotional on (ironically) Black Friday, here was the verse of the day; Psalm 127:2 It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?
We are God’s most loved creations, and our Creator knows we need to rest our bodies and minds in order to fulfill our daily purpose. Tired bodies and frazzled minds can not function in the manner which we were created for. Trust me, I know! Other people need us on a daily basis: husbands, wives, children, friends, and employers. They are all counting on us to be at our best.
If you’re a mom, I bet you clearly remember those sleepless nights and around the clock feedings when the kids were just babies. I’m sure some of you are currently doing the baby-thing, still. Rest assured that this time will pass and, believe it or not, those kids will learn to sleep through the night! The tricky part for a lot of us is to not fill those newly added hours, allotted for rest, with more stuff. Sometimes our minds, unable to turn off, keep playing the tapes of what happened during the previous day, or we lay in bed making mental “to do” lists for the day ahead. Perhaps you have even caught yourself thinking, “I wish this night would just end so I could get up and get started!” I admit it, I’ve had that thought!–And it doesn’t HAVE to be Christmastime, either.
The Christmas season brings with it a whole new set of expectations; many of which we unfairly place on ourselves. Are the house decorations Home and Garden Magazine worthy? Have I included everyone on my gift list? What IS the last day to mail presents back East? 200 Christmas cards to sign, address, and the holiday letter to compose… The list goes on and on.
This year, do yourself and your family a favor… slow it down. Just a bit. Rest a little more, and try your hardest to remove the word “hurry” from your vocabulary.
Let’s try this together. I’m not sure how much of my own advice I’ll be able to follow, but I’m really going to try. I mean, seriously,– we needn’t fill up every hour of the day to consider ourselves productive, right? Let’s stay focused on what this beautiful season is all about… awaiting the coming of our Savior!
If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to pick up a daily devotional during this Advent season. Stay refreshed through God’s Word. Pour yourself a cup of tea, and just take a minute to breathe. Things will get done.
