ROADBLOCKS (Day 4 of 7)
(Need to start at the beginning? Day 1)
In listing the reasons that celebrations can go awry, I almost sat down to cry. There are so many. I will list a few here and some thoughts.
I mentioned perfectionism. Trying to create the “perfect” celebration is a good way to ruin it. Perfect doesn’t really happen and you wind up making folks miserable trying.
Doing too much is a recipe for exhaustion. Pick the most important things and the favorite things and let the rest go.
Expectations, yours and others’, can complicate celebrations. Go simple and be willing to take the flack for saying no to anything that doesn’t make your season bright.
Winging it as you go into the holidays usually means you’ll be sideswiped by others’ plans. Make a few plans with your spouse and stick to them (unless you both agree it’s worth it to add to your calendar).
Heart attitudes can put some pain in your holidays. Take a little time to talk to God and your spouse about it. Do you need to forgive someone? Do you need to deal with a stressor? (As a side note, if you have had a recent significant loss, dial down your holiday plans and allow yourself to grieve. It’s OK, really.)
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
Hans Hofmann
Bottom line for me is that we need to talk to God and our spouses about what the celebration or holiday is really about. Where do our hearts need to be? How do we live that out well? And, simplicity rocks. You can always add things, but it’s fairly hard to back out of something.
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