Christmas GIFT
There are only 19 more days until Christmas…..is the gift list made, is the shopping done, are the gifts for those far away ready to be put in the mail, have things been ordered from Amazon by the shipping deadline? So many questions and so much potential for stress to rob me of the joy of the season…if I allow it. In years past I have taken a “solemn vow” not to allow the stress to get me, but usually I find myself tired, stressed and sometimes bitter by the end of the holiday “season”. My question the other day was would this year be any different…..would I vow to be stress-free, but then bow to the pressure to get and wrap and send the “perfect” thing in time?
I’ve been reading a wonderful book by Ann Voskamp called “one thousand gifts”, and it is helping me to reframe my attitude. If you have never read anything by Ann, I recommend her to you. She is a calming spirit, and her beautifully phrased writing calms my spirit every time I pick up one of her books. She calls me to slow down, and savor everything around me…..the wonderful, the unexpected, the difficult, even the hard and ugly…..to not miss what God is doing. Reading this book has caused me to do just that…to slow down and think about how I want this season to go. I want to bless my people, but how I do that may look different from years past.
In addition to reading “one thousand gifts” I’ve been reading a companion book that was gifted to me by a sweet friend…the book is called “be the gift” and as soon as I began to read it, I knew that God was asking me to take a different approach to this season this year….as I seek to find the “perfect” gift for my loved ones, God is giving me a new definition of the perfect gift. As I’m reading I have the very strong impression that the “gift” that God is showing me is for me, for us, to come together to give grace to each other….to be the gift to each other. How do we do this, how do we know what that looks like…I think it is opening ourselves up and being willing to Give It Forward Today (GIFT)…to look for and see the opportunities to give grace to each other.
What if, for these 19 days left until Christmas, we all decided to GIFT those around us….what if we began to look for opportunities to give grace to those around us….how would this holiday be different from all the others that have come before? I think I’ll try it and see….join me for the best Christmas season ever!