lystn

Proverbs 24:27 NLT

'Do your planning and prepare your fields before building your house.'

I’m sure you won’t thank me for this but I want to write about Christmas. You may be reading this in the height of summer, but Christmas requires planning! I like Christmas in some ways and dislike it in others. Often it seems I manage the run into Christmas through Advent really well. However, the actual holiday can descend into stress and chaos.

That’s partly because as cook, a lot of my time is in the kitchen. We live in an open-plan house, so I am not shut away from everyone, and while Christmas dinner itself is a slightly upmarket roast, somehow it can become a pressure.

If Christmas is stressful for you too, why not agree with yourself that this year you will run Christmas and refuse to allow Christmas to run you? So much of the essential meaning of Christmas can be lost through external pressures, and many of these are of our own making. When we take time to create a plan and then clearly communicate it to family and friends, it’s much easier to implement and will ensure we can maintain moments of reflection throughout the celebration.

I used to emerge each year grumpy from the event and also having spent little time reflecting upon the reason we have Christmas at all. I was consumed as much as any consumer with the fantasy Christmas presented through the media hype. This created false expectations, ones I could never expect to meet and so I set myself, and others, up for disappointment. One thing scripture teaches is that the disciple takes the decisions as to how they are to live. We do not need to be subject to the whim and fantasy of others.

QUESTION: Could planning now lead you to a more joyous and Christ-centred Christmas?

PRAYER: Lord, help me to be diligent in the plans I make.