Holiday Help

The holidays can bring out the best or the worst in all of us. We cram into our schedules, unusual activities. We long for scenarios that may never happen even if it is Christmas. Or, our expectations are sky-high from people that haven’t performed so well up to this point! For some reason, we think the magic of the season will produce a different result or reaction from those who disappoint all year long. The traditions and practices of the season are different from any other time of the year. Everything is different at Christmas. Why is this?

Is it true that “It’s the most wonderful time of the year?” My mother used to say the whole world seemed to change for the better at Christmas. It seemed to her people acknowledged the Reason for the season. I think she was right. Things were prettier, and people were nicer, the flow of society was happier and gentler as anticipation grew toward Christmas. The Judeo-Christian values were held dear in most of society, and these values governed so much of our behavior and celebration of the season.

Unfortunately, the world is different than it once was and now more than ever, we must focus on our individual journeys with Jesus to cope with the world as it is. Followers of Jesus must remain faithful to Him and choose Him when much of society isn’t. We truly have to decide to follow Jesus daily.

With that in mind, maybe the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons are more important than ever.

Let’s not allow the darkness to do what darkness does. Darkness will creep into your soul and make you cynical of all that’s happy and bright and the goodwill still present on this earth. Even today at church, someone asked how she could quit focusing on all the bad in the world.

Here are nine tips for holiday help:

• Stay with Jesus: Focus on scripture reading, and prayer. Add this to your life if it isn’t already. There are all kinds of Christmas Bible reading plans online. Find one and start it. If you are in this habit already, then keep it going. This daily discipline will save your life and keep you sane.
• Enjoy the Body of Christ: If regular church attendance is already part of your life, keep that going. Be at your local church as often as the church holiday schedule allows. Our religious freedom is a gift, and corporate worship is God’s idea.
• Pray for the lost: Your friends and family who don’t yet know Him need your prayers. You may have a divine opportunity around them these next few weeks. You’ll be ready for it if you’ve spent time with the Father.
• Play the sacred Christmas carols: “Grandma got run over by a reindeer” will be heard a thousand times on any radio station. Raise the essence of the season and download some gorgeous, choral, or orchestral music, and enjoy the grandeur of these long-held hymns of Christmas.
• Love the ones you are with: Be kind, and use manners with those you’re around every day. You will feel better about yourself and your relationship with the Lord.
• Teach the traditional: Christmas carols, old movies, poetry from days gone by, and lasting beliefs. Snuggle up and share storybooks of Jesus coming to earth. Focus on the biblical more than the secular.
• Keep good routines: If you have good habits such as eating right, going to bed at a regular time, or exercise, then keep it up. If not, start. All these things are remedies for stress.
• Serve others: This is basic Christianity and should be done regularly anyway. Work in your local church as there’s often a need for volunteers to greet at the Christmas services, or serve meals, or buy presents for others.
• Live Christlike: There is incredible suffering, and people who know you are watching you. You can bring the light of Jesus to your world. If you have a stressful schedule, figure out your “no’s”, dig deeper, and lean on Jesus.

The darkness of this world can breed cynicism in all of us. As followers of Jesus, we have His light within us and we can be vigilant to keep the light burning as steady as a lighthouse. Let’s not cave into the world’s darkness. Let’s live as children of the Light because the world has nothing to offer to us. They are searching for the Light. We have to remember . . . Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Joy to the world, the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven and nature sing.

Dear precious King of my heart, let me make room for you this season, even more than I usually do. Help me submit all my holiday plans to you for your approval and pleasure. Let me run to the lover of my soul for rest and open my eyes to why heaven and nature sing to You. In Jesus’ Name, amen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

• Valerie Rumfelt is an on-mission writer, sharing winning ways to follow Jesus
• She and her husband, Clark, formerly served with the NAMB and have been church planters in Canada and Rhode Island and were the Executive Directors for Buried Treasures Home
• They will be serving with the IMB in Japan and working as a part of Southern Baptist efforts to be a light among the many people living in darkness.
• You can follow Valerie’s blogs on valerierumfelt.com