My Simple Christmas…and An Invitation

This week I posted my weekly podcast regarding having a Simple Christmas. Here’s a 25 second snippet of the episode…

Do you ever wonder if the counsel given is followed by the one who gave it? I assure you that it is just as hard for me to do the right thing as it is the next person, and many times I fail. But I’m grateful that the Lord brought these truths to my heart to refresh me and encourage me. Here’s how it happened and what I did…

The day after this episode aired, I was praying about all the work I needed to do that day. The Lord brought my podcast teaching to my mind. I had made an acrostic with the word, Simple.

Seek the Lord first.
Ignore the unimportant
Make a memory
Put people first
Live for eternity
Enjoy the moment

As I pondered those thoughts and inserted them into my list, the Lord spoke to my heart. “Ignore the unimportant.” Part of what I thought I needed to do that day was bring out our HUGE Christmas tree and get it decorated. Then the Lord brought to my mind my beautiful small tree that a dear friend gave me several years ago. That would simplify things!

• It doesn’t require assembly.
• It already has lights on it, and joy of joys, they all work!
• It would be so much easier than the big tree.

I retrieved the tree and set it up on a table in the family room where the big tree usually sits. It isn’t decorated yet,and I literally just plunked it down on that table without a tree skirt or anything, but I’ll get to that this week and it won’t take me long! Do you know how much weight was taken off of my shoulders by making that one decision?

It removed hours of work and frustration.
It freed me up to do other tasks.
I was able to say, “Yes!” to my husband’s suggestion that we make a Sam’s Club run together and grab a sandwich at Chick-Fil-A on our way. (That’s letters M and E of the acrostic!).

I also found that you can simplify decorations and still have a festive look by adding strands of white lights in places around the house. My small Christmas tree usually goes in my bedroom, but even though it’s not there this year, this strand of lights on the mantle adds the perfect amount of decor!

So I ask you, how will you implement a “Simple Christmas?” It has to begin NOW. It has to be a willingness to allow things to be different than they usually are. It has to be a surrender of being pressed into what the world says is important about Christmas, and a reverting to what the Bible says about the birth of our Savior. It will free you up to focus on Christ, on His incarnation.

The Christmas Story:
God meets the rebellion of sin with the
only thing that has the power to defeat it;
the birth of His Son. ~ Paul Tripp

THAT is what is important. Ignore the rest that gets in your way of rejoicing in God’s great gift to us in the person of His Son! Not only will that be a SIMPLE Christmas, it will a peaceful one. I’m striving for it, too, my friends.

Finally, for all of you who responded to the Virtual Adoption Shower I hosted this week for Whitney and Paul, I want to say, THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. God is so good to allow such kind and loving people who also have a heart for adoption to respond in such loving generosity. We are so deeply grateful.

We want to say thank you to those of you in our area by inviting you to our home for a celebration. If you can come, please RSVP by commenting on this post.

If you cannot come, I’m sending you a “virtual cookie and glass of punch!” Thank you again for your kindness to our family.

Refreshed by my simple Christmas,