Tag: Christmas

Oh, Christmas Tree

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As you may recall, for the last 3 weeks there have been boxes upon boxes of Christmas decor piled high on my living room floor…

Although I came very close to just arranging them in a pyramid formation, sticking a star on top and calling it a day, I am happy to report that I actually mustered up enough time and Christmas cheer this week to finally finish decking the halls. 🎄🎄🎄

Whew. Better late than never. 🤷‍♀️

Last night, as I sat on the couch admiring our freshly trimmed tree, I caught my reflection in one of the shiny red ornaments — and it reminded of something I heard recently on Facebook.

Scrolling through my feed, I ran across a holiday video touting an interesting theory: it boldly claimed that the way you decorate your Christmas tree is a direct reflection of who you are.

(Considering the fact that mine was quite literally reflecting me at the moment, I couldn’t argue there might be something to this… 🤔)

The man in the video asserted that trees decorated with a hodge-podge of handmade family ornaments are a testament to people who have loving homes, while those with more perfectly coiffed trees, do NOT. 😱😱😱

Ouch! 😣

You mean we can’t have it both ways — a loving home and a beautiful tree???? 😩😩😩🎄🎄🎄

Am I the only mom out there who struggles with wanting it both ways? 😔🙋‍♀️

It’s a hard pill to swallow, but I get what he’s saying…and it’s about more than just a Christmas tree — it’s about the age-old struggle between self-sacrifice and self-indulgence.

Maybe having a pretty tree in and of itself isn’t wrong…but the bigger question is, when the two are at odds, which do we choose?…do we love our family or our self more?

When we choose the fancy tree OVER the family tree, our love is misplaced…and if you’re not loving the things that really matter, your tree will reflect that.

And in a way, our Christmas tree is sort of like a microcosm of our lives as well…

How I choose to “decorate” the proverbial tree of my life is a direct reflection on what matters most to me.

Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matthew 6:24)

This year, our family ended up compromising on decorating the tree — a few fancy ornaments mixed in with handmade ornaments from the kids…and it turned out great.

But with God? There is no compromise.

You have to choose one or the other: hot or cold, God or self. There is no in-between. Jesus says if we are lukewarm, he will spew us out of His mouth. (Revelation 3:16)

We only get one tree and we only get one life — what are the “ornaments” hanging on yours? Do they reflect a love of self or a love of God?

🤔🤔🤔

Jesus Christ died atop a tree for you…and is more than deserving to live at the top of your tree as well.

Fresh cut trees don’t last forever…even the fancy ones. And Jesus is the only thing that can save you from being thrown in the fire at the end of the season.

Is Jesus the star atop the tree of your life?

I hope so, because He is the only real hope you and I have of ever being a true Evergreen.

Until next time…

-PWAP

So Much To Do, So Little Time

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It’s December 12th and this is the current state of my house…🎄🎄📦📦

Boxes everywhere.

Some freshly delivered from Amazon, while others have been sitting there for weeks…ever since the day I brought them down from the attic.

Yes, I am embarrassed to admit that for the past 3 weeks, my family has had to carefully step around boxes of my good intentions piled up in our hallway…each one filled with enough decor to transform an ordinary house into a winter wonderland.

Last night my husband finally decided it was time for an intervention 🤣— suggesting that with less than two weeks left until Christmas, I should just throw in the towel on the rest of my decorating plans…so we can actually have some semblance of a normal living room once again.

In the words of Stephanie Judith Tanner:

How rude.

😂😂😂😂

For your information, the reason I haven’t yet finished the decorating is because I’ve been preoccupied with arguably more important things…such as keeping our kids alive and stuff.

🙄🙄🙄🤣

But if I’m being honest, in my heart of hearts, I know he’s right…😔 we can’t keep living this way…at least not without ending up on an episode of hoarders or something.

I just wish I had time to do it all — enough time to feed my kids AND and set up all 87 pieces my miniature Christmas village. 😂

But I don’t.

I’m only one person and I only have a limited amount of time.

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On a more serious and personal note…my husband’s beloved grandmother unfortunately passed away this week 😔.

It’s times like these that make you stop and pause and think about the very limited time we have here on this earth as well.

We’ve all obviously been thinking a lot about her this weekend…and one thing that struck me is how even though she lived what we would consider “a long, full life,” 90 years still somehow doesn’t seem long enough.

“Don’t blink,” they say.

Because the stark reality is that some of us won’t even live THAT long. None of us is promised tomorrow, let alone 90 years.

With such a limited amount of time…what will we use it for?

Jesus teaches us to use the time we are given to prepare.

Prepare for what?

Our own death and/or His second coming.

Thankfully, Grandma H. did use her time to prepare and she taught her family to do the same. ❤️

But why doesn’t everyone spend their time this way?

Unfortunately, some people don’t prepare because they simply don’t believe.

But as believers, we know we need to prepare! So, we set out with good intentions, but we need to make sure the time doesn’t slip away from us.

Just as I got side tracked with the Christmas decor, Jesus warns us of doing the same with our very own lives.

In the parable of the sower, Jesus warns that sometimes the “cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches” can choke out God’s purpose for our lives (Matthew 13:22).

In other words, when the frivolous things take over our time, we’re in danger of running out of time to devote to the things that really matter — the work of the Lord.

What happens when that happens?

Well, we’ll unfortunately be like the 5 foolish virgins whose lamps weren’t ready for the bridegroom — a parable that warns us to prepare for the second coming of Christ (Matthew 25:1-13).

Because we don’t know how much time we have, we not only need to prepare but prepare with a sense of urgency. Those described in Luke 9:57-62 believed, but didn’t treat their calling with the urgency it called for…why?

Simply put, because it just wasn’t a “convenient” time for them. They thought they had more time…just as Felix did in Acts 24:25.

Life is always going to be full of demands on our time…so, there will never be a more convenient time to follow Christ than the present. In Luke 10:38-42, Mary recognized this, while Martha did not:

38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Christ calls us to be a Mary in a Martha world.

So, while seeing those boxes in the hallway may irritate me every time I walk past them, they should actually serve as a reminder that I’ve been trying to put first things first — God and my family. If I’m overcommitted, I’m overcommitted to Christ.

December 25th is coming in less than 2 weeks whether I am prepared for it or not. As much as I would like to turn back the clock (or the advent calendar, for that matter) and somehow magically have time to check off every item on my “to-do” list, that’s not going to happen.

And that’s fine. Because the truth is, those boxes could sit there all year long and it wouldn’t change my eternal salvation one bit. 📦😊

Until next time…

-PWAP

Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

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Yesterday was the 57th anniversary of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Wow! Hard to believe that a Christmas special could be running that long and still be popular with generations today as it was back when it first aired.

But nevertheless it has stood the test of time — and I can understand why.

The show has lovable characters, colorful scenes, and a meaningful message.

It’s one of our family’s favorites.

In fact, we love it so much that this year we purchased matching “Charlie Brown Christmas” themed pajamas to wear on Christmas morning. (Yes, we’re one of those annoying families that wears matching PJs 🙄😂).

The day they arrived in the mail, I threw them in the washer to make sure they were fresh and clean for Christmas…but when I pulled them back out, I realized something had gone terribly wrong — ALL of the black ink had mysteriously disappeared! 😱😭😭😤😩😔

I was distraught…and a little puzzled. How is that even possible? 🤔

But instead of marching myself down to the store like a total “Karen” and demanding a full refund, I decided to try to salvage the situation myself…with nothing but a little black Sharpie and sheer determination. I wasn’t going to let this ruin my Christmas spirit.

After all, I was a coloring contest champion back in the day…how hard could it be?

So, I sat down and went to work on it.

Tracing over those faded lines, I started out confidently, slowly and gently following the path with my marker. It was starting to take shape again.

But as time went on, my hand began to tire and cramp from all of that meticulous motion, making it difficult to keep the pen from veering outside of the lines.

Maybe it’s because nowadays our hands are more assimilated to keyboards and mouse pads than to good old paper and pen, but whatever the reason, the process turned out to be more difficult than I originally thought.

Thankfully, to the naked eye, the finished product mirrored the original…even though there were a couple of moments where I came dangerously close to giving Lucy a mustache and Charlie Brown a black eye 😳😂…well, that is a bigger black eye than he’s supposed to have, anyway. 🤣

It was in those difficult moments that I gained a newfound appreciation for the talent of the original Peanuts artist, Charles Schulz.

How did he so effortless draw these characters over and over for decades????

If I’m being honest, I couldn’t even TRACE these cartoons as well as he could DRAW THEM FROM SCRATCH! 🤯

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And then I thought about Jesus.

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign unto you..Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” – Luke 2:11-14

This is the time of year that the world chooses to remember the birth of Christ — I mean, that’s what the “Charlie Brown Christmas” special is all about, right? A bunch of kids finding the “true meaning” of Christmas.

But as I traced those lines, my thoughts didn’t stop at the manger — they moved through the life of Christ and the path that he carved out for us through His sinless example.

Much as my Sharpie followed the lines on that shirt, we as Christians are to follow those paths that Jesus has outlined for us as well. “…Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’” (Matthew 16:24)

He’s carved out the path, we just have to follow it.

But just like my hand did, we will undoubtedly tire and cramp in the process, resulting in mistakes…sins, if you will.

Even in our best efforts to “stay inside the lines,”we will undoubtedly fall short of the original.

But as a Christian (and recovering perfectionist), I have to remind myself that Christ’s sacrifice forgives me of my sins…so it’s less about how well I trace…and more about God’s redeeming grace.

One day, when I meet God and show him my own proverbial “artwork” — what I’ve drawn on the canvas of my life…will it look like a masterpiece?

Probably not…after all, I’m obviously no Charles Schulz. 😂

And I’m definitely not Jesus — His life was and is the only true masterpiece.

But I am a child of God, and I can call Him my Heavenly Father.

And as my Father, when He sees my incomprehensible scribbles, I imagine His reaction to be the same as that of any loving parent whose little child comes to show him a picture they’ve colored: He, with an immeasurable amount of grace, will look at it and say, “Well done.” (Matthew 25:21)

Until next time…

-PWAP