With the beginning of December here, I have a feeling that most of you are beginning to get very frantic with all you have to do for Christmas. Isn’t it wonderful to know, though, that we don’t have to be perfect before God?

Christmas usually brings hectic schedules, tired loved ones, crowded malls, and all those “things we have to do” that have absolutely nothing to do with Jesus’ birth! So how do we find the peace that really means Christmas? Maybe this story will help you.

I was sitting at a luncheon last month listening to two ladies talking. They were very engaged in their conversation when they turned to talk to me.
They remembered that I had spoken there previously on my “How to Have a More Organized Christmas” talk.

“I have to tell you a funny story,” one of the ladies said to me. “I think you will be proud of me at the end of this story!

She had been preparing for Christmas with zeal and an urgency that wouldn’t stop: She had gifts to be wrapped piled high on one table, she was setting the table for the dinner, and she had homemade Christmas ornaments still unfinished on another table while Christmas cookies were baking in the oven.

Just as she started to remove the almost burnt Christmas cookies from the oven, her three boys started to run through the house singing carols and laughing.

“Boys!” she yelled at them. “Can’t you see I’m trying to get Christmas ready!”

She told me that as soon as those words flew out of her mouth, she felt ashamed. How could she yell at the very people she was supposed to love on the very occasion that was supposed to be about God’s gift of love to us?

She resolved then and there that she wouldn’t try to “do everything” at Christmas but only what she knew would bring her and her family joy.

So…how do you feel about her Christmas decision? I hope you decide to do less running around and do more of what is really important this Christmas.

“Lord help me to realize how brief my time on earth will be. Help me to know that I am here for but a moment more. My life is no longer than my hand! My whole lifetime is but a moment to you. And all this busy rushing ends in nothing. And so, Lord, my only hope is in you.” Psalm 39: 4-7 from The Living Bible