How to steer clear of the Christmas trap

I love Christmas!

I mean love, love, love it!!!

I love having all my family gathered in one place.

I love giving them special things they want or need.

I love baking Christmas cookies for my husband and my kids and seeing their big eyes and happy smiles when they come home from work and school and notice something yummy on the counter.

I love sitting in our living room with nothing but the soft glow of the Christmas tree for light.

I love Christmas programs and Christmas parties and Christmas dinners, but the thing I love most about Christmas – is Jesus.

Yes, Jesus.

I love that he loved me so much that he humbled himself, stepped down off his throne, and took on human flesh for me.

He is the whole reason we have Christmas. If not for his birth what would we celebrate? His love is certainly the source from which all my Christmas joy flows.

So, why is it then that just this past weekend, I found myself discouraged, distracted and even a tad bit grumpy?

Yes, me – Miss Have a Holly Jolly Christmas and Fa la la la la, me – grumpy!

Why?

Because even after all I’ve learned over the past couple years about whom I need to keep my eyes fixed upon, I let myself fall into the Christmas trap.

I got so busy buying presents and hanging decorations, trying to make sure my family’s Christmas is merry, that I forgot how much I need to spend time with the one this season is all about.

I know it’s an easy trap to fall into, but seriously, you’d think after all I’ve been through I’d be smarter. I mean, this site is called “stayedonthee!”

Stayed on who? Sometimes I wonder.

I guess it just goes to show you that no matter how vigilant we are about keeping our eyes on Christ, no one is immune to distractions.

 Even if it doesn’t happen organically through busyness and responsibilities, the devil is always prepared with a host of diversions to throw in our path.

And when we are busy, it is that much easier for the devil to trip us up.

“The devil cannot read our mind, but he studies us all the time and he pays attention to where we are fixing our eyes.”

I was just recently listening to a video of one of my favorite authors and she said something that resonated so much with me. She said, “The devil cannot read our mind, but he studies us all the time and he pays attention to where we are fixing our eyes.”

If we are not fixing our eyes on Jesus and his truth, if we have become distracted by something else we think will fill our soul, it’s like putting up a huge billboard for the devil and saying, “tempt me here, Satan, tempt me here!”

Like I said, I’ve been busy this Christmas season. I’ve been working longer hours outside the home than I have since before my kids were born. I’ve been trying to keep this blog running. Top that with all the usual mother/wife responsibilities and then add the Christmas tasks, and it’s not hard to see how I could get a bit distracted.

I haven’t been studying my Bible as deeply as I was before, and I can tell.

I did not realize it though until I watched that video and attended my children’s Christmas program.

As I watched the video, I knew exactly why I was feeling discouraged. Instead of keeping my eyes on Jesus and basking in this glorious season of his birth, I was looking back on the past year, thinking of all the things I wanted to accomplish that haven’t yet transpired – goals not yet met, dreams not yet realized.

Instead of thanking God for all the amazing things I have, I was grumbling about the few things I don’t.

Then I went to my kids’ school Christmas program.

I have to mention, that I was already expecting to be blessed by this program because it is the highlight of the school year, every year.

My kids go to a small Christian school, and no matter how amazing the teachers, the curriculum, and the atmosphere, there are always things, because of a small budget, that are lacking.

But no matter how much I wish they could enjoy a greater variety of electives, or experience a better than mediocre athletic program the Christmas program is the one time of year when God quiets my soul and lets me know without question that they are exactly where they are supposed to be.

That is because, somewhere throughout that program will be a song that highlights what this life is all about. And as I watch my children sing from their hearts about the Lord they love, about the Lord they know better, in part because of that school, I am reminded of why I sent them there in the first place.

However, this year, something extra special happened. The song that touched my heart this year, not only put the educational choice for my children back into perspective, it also helped put my thought life back in perspective.

It helped me escape from the Christmas trap of being too busy to focus on what I know I need.

The song this year was made popular by Christian singer Natalie Grant, but I had never heard it until that night.

It was sung by the high school choir with lead vocals given to a young lady and a young man that I have watched grow from kindergarten.

As they sang so beautifully, the lyrics flashed before us on the big screen. It begins in the shepherds fields, telling the story of that night so long ago.

“This is how the story goes…,” they sang. Then came the words that set my heart back upside right. They were simple, but yet profound.

“But it is more than a fable, And it’s more than a fairytale. And more than my mind can conceive.”

That’s all it took to wake me up from my Christmas funk. I just needed to be reminded that with all the sweet Christmas tales we enjoy this time of year, Santa and Frosty and Rudolph, there is only one that actually happened.

There is only one that, although it seems just as unbelievable as flying reindeer or a real-life snowman, is just as much a part of our history as the world wars or the birth of our nation.

The fact that the King of the world, the Creator of all, would volunteer to come to this world as the most helpless of His created things – an innocent newborn baby.

Why?

For us.

To save our sinful souls.

It is truly more than our minds can conceive.

Toward the end of the song the lyrics read,

I believe In a cross
I believe he came For one
He came for all
Heavens child became a man
Gave his life for me
In spite of all I am

That’s the part that is so inconceivable to me.

In spite of the fact that I can so easily be distracted and discouraged by this temporal world, He willingly came to this sinful place for me.

In spite of the fact that He has blessed me beyond measure, and I still find reason to bicker and complain, He bore the burden of all my sin.

In spite of the fact that there is nothing I could ever do to pay him back or earn my salvation, He died for me anyway and offered me eternal life as a gift.

Now that is something I can fix my eyes upon.

That is something that will put the merry back in my Merry Christmas.

So, if like me you’ve fallen into that Christmas trap – discouraged because of unmet expectations or stressed due to an overload of holiday errands – look up!

Take your eyes off this world, its distractions and its disappointments and focus on the one whom this holiday is all about.

Because no matter what material gifts you will give or receive this season, He has given us all the one gift only He can give – hope!!!

Merriest of Christmases to you my friends!!!