We normally have two trees in our house. One the kids pretty much decorate in our family room. The second tree I decorate with our prettiest ornaments and this one is in our living room. This year we got decorated the kids' tree and we got the other tree up. I put the ribbon on it. I put the berries on it and it sat there for a few weeks with no ornaments. Honestly, it looked fine without the ornaments, but every time I looked at it, it just screamed at me, "Please finish decorating me". And so, I just took it down. Done. The second tree is no longer adding stress to my life because it's back in the box until next year.
If you're my Facebook friend, then you know I'm asking lots of questions this year about how we do Christmas.
Blogs like this one and this one really make me think that I become so weighed down with the stress of Christmas and shopping and all that comes with it, that I miss the very heart of Christmas and the heart of my Savior. I don't think He would ever want His birthday celebration to be the most stressful month of the year.
And so I decided that 2012 would be different. Derek and I have already started talking about how things might be different for our family in December 2012. But then I heard this sermon and I realized that I needed to make changes in 2011. The title is "I won't survive the holidays". The takeaway from this sermon is "I won't get lost in lesser things. I will make the most of Jesus." It's a sermon from Luke 10 about Mary and Martha and it's one of the best sermons on that passage of Scripture that I've heard. Everyone's always so hard on Martha, but where would the world be without Marthas? The problem was that Martha was distracted with the preparations. She should've prepared the best she could and then just let it go to sit at the feet of Jesus. Anyway, it's really worth the listen if you have 40 minutes of time.
After hearing the sermon yesterday, I decided to remove a distraction from my life (namely a tree that needed to be decorated). And so the tree is down and I don't feel bad about it at all.
4 comments:
Great blog! I heard a sermon last night on "How I finish 2011 will determine 2012." great reminder to start making changes now to how you want things to be. Love you friend!
Love it!
jennifer
Thanks for sharing Alicia! I once read a quote, “Everyone can have a Mary heart with a Martha schedule”…. and I believe it. We just have to work at it. and there’s no better time than the present. (pun intended)! XOXO
i had someone make a recent remark questioning why there's church service on sunday when it's Christmas day...that it should've been moved to christmas eve since kids will be so busy opening presents on the 25th.
it's remarks like these that just make me cringe at the heart and want to say HELLO!!! it is about celebrating the birth of Christ Jesus. it's our present to Him to celebrate His birth, not the material things that we buy our children.
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