In the Midst of an Imperfect Christmas

Nothing means holiday time like cold temps and a white blanket of snow.

Thanksgiving is over, the turkey is gone and now we are thrust full throttle into the Christmas season. There are no excuses now, the decorations have to go up, the gifts have to be purchased and an entire host of traditional foods are waiting to be made and eaten. Are you as overwhelmed as I am at the thought of Christmas being just a couple weeks away?

It could be because I usually wait until the week of Christmas to start shopping while by December 5^th I’ve made three batches of fudge and eaten two of them. Can you say sugar high? Good nutrition gets blown out the window in December while mood swings, cortisol production and weigh gain wash over me like a tidal wave ending up five pounds heavier by January 1^st.

In addition to all the traditions that must be kept in order for Christmas to arrive, we still have to keep all the necessary plates spinning like laundry, writing, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, bill paying and that highly demanding job  of dairy farming.

While we run here and there to make the holidays happen, we are constantly bombarded with the delusional picture of what Christmas should be in our homes. It begins in November and seems unending with the picture perfect commercials, Hallmark movies with happy romantic endings and the holiday-how-tos helping you prepare for holiday parties, wrapping the perfect gift, decorating the perfect tree and getting your Christmas cards in the mail by black Friday.

The perfect Christmas has come and gone. It happened over 2000 years ago when a world changing baby was born without strings of lights, a warm fire or plates of fudge carefully placed on Christmas china.  One bright star set the world on fire to find this perfect baby, born to imperfect parents.

What appeared as an illegitimate crisis pregnancy ended up being our perfect Savior.  A Savior born without sin into a sinful world that did not deserve Him.

This year, when we pull away the pretty wrappings and soaring expectations of perfection in the middle of our over indulgent celebrations, I hope we find the perfect Savior born to love us in the middle of our imperfect world.

He loves us.

He’s pursuing us.

Turn around and find Him….your Savior born a babe… in a cow barn.

He’s waiting.

Are you insane?

They say that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. That could be true, of course I could define insanity in several ways….like four kids in six years or thinking a batch of cookies could last more than 2 hours or trying to be a PC mom by not letting my kids play with guns when God gave them a built in gun in their thumb and index finger.

Insane or not, there are some days when we struggle with doing the same wrong thing over and over and over again. Are you with me? Do you hang out in this camp? We try to change and we do for a while but then we find ourselves back at the camp fire of self-condemnation saying, “Why did I do that again? I thought I was passed this.”

Overspending, lying, laziness, gluttony, over indulgence, immorality, addiction of all kinds, you name it, we can struggle with it. So what’s the answer?

If I knew that, I could put on seminars and get paid the big bucks for solving all our problems! But I do have a couple of words of encouragement.

Doing one thing intentionally every day to try to break the cycle of your wrong choices can really add up. No one can change overnight but little by little we can change using intentionality every day. Just one thing.

And please, if you get nothing else out of this remember that you aren’t the failure you may see in the mirror. Self-condemnation can only drive you into a wall of going nowhere. It stops you from getting better and keeps you slogging through the muck and mire of hopelessness and yes…insanity!

You can only face today, tomorrow won’t come today. Today can be one intentional choice different than yesterday. Make one good choice today and enjoy a well-deserved feeling of satisfaction!