Close your eyes and picture the perfect Christmas. The smell of fresh-baked goods filling the house. The tree glistening with perfectly hung lights and a fire crackling as the kids play with new toys.
We start December with high expectations, but all too often our quest for the picture-perfect day leaves us frazzled and stressed. The Christmas season becomes flooded with anything but joy as we race to find the perfect gift and open our homes to family, in-laws, and friends.
This year can be different! Follow these two simple steps, and you can finally have the best Christmas ever.
How to Have the Best Christmas Ever:
1. Make the main thing the main thing.
The best way to avoid turning into the Grinch this Christmas is to remember the point of the holiday. Christmas isn’t a task to complete or a burden to endure, it is a celebration of the burden that Jesus carried so that we could be freed from sin and death!
We often hear “To us a child is born, to us a son is given,” and conclude that Christmas is a birthday party for the birth of Christ, but Christmas is a birthday celebration for us all because it marks the day Jesus was born so that we could be free!
Don’t let the stress of making a list and checking it twice keep you from celebrating the salvation that came with Jesus! Make the main thing the main thing this season by remembering that Christmas is a celebration of God’s ultimate gift of salvation.
2. Choose peace over chaos.
In a letter to the church in Colossae, the apostle Paul wrote about what it looked like to be alive in Jesus. He instructs the Colossians to, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful”. This instruction is true for us today. We are called to live in peace, looking at our lives with thanks for what we have instead of complaining about what we don’t have.
When we let peace rule in our lives, the stress of life slowly begins to fade away. The chaos of the holidays is put into context and suddenly becomes null compared with the grace of God and the joyful peace He brings to our lives when we seek Him.
So put down the cookie cutters, step away from the gift wrap, and take time to rest in God’s peace. Your house may not smell like fresh-baked goods and your tree may not sparkle, but seeking Jesus and His peace this holiday season will ensure you to have the best Christmas ever.
