September 30, 2025 • 21 mins
Imagine waking up on December 1st feeling peaceful instead of panicked. The soft twinkling lights illuminate your living room as you enjoy a quiet moment before the day begins. Your gifts are purchased, your calendar has breathing room, and you feel genuinely excited about the season ahead.
This peaceful December morning isn't a fantasy—it's entirely possible when you start preparing for Christmas now, with intention and prayer. The irony of Christmas is striking: angels announced "peace on earth," yet for many adults (especially women), it's become the most stressful season of the year. Between overcommitted schedules, financial strain, social expectations, and family dynamics, we often find ourselves exhausted rather than joyful.
What would happen if you approached the holidays differently this year? Start by prayerfully determining what matters most to your family. For some, it might be Advent readings and meaningful conversations about Christ's birth. For others, it might involve baking cookies with neighbors or sending thoughtful cards to loved ones. Once you've identified your priorities, protect your calendar fiercely—decide which events deserve your presence and which ones you'll politely decline. Create a realistic budget for gifts and festivities, then challenge yourself to complete all shopping by December 1st.
The most transformative change happens when we shift from a performance mindset to one of presence. Children rarely remember elaborate decorations or perfect table settings—they remember simple traditions and time spent together. As Psalm 46 reminds us, sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is "be still and know that I am God." This Christmas, will you join me in creating space for that stillness amidst the season?
Ready to transform your holiday experience? Begin your Christmas preparations today and discover the peace that comes from intentional planning and Christ-centered priorities.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Leanne (00:51):
With just under three months until Christmas, I
thought that now might be agreat time to start discussing
the holidays, so that you canstep into this traditionally
very busy season feeling calmand peace-filled.
You want to embrace theholidays with excellence and you
(01:14):
want to feel relaxed andrefreshed instead of frantic and
overwhelmed, and you know thatpreparation will help you with
that.
So picture this.
I can see you now.
The house is quiet.
As you creep down the stairs,the soft twinkling lights of the
(01:34):
Christmas tree provide just theright amount of coziness for
this otherwise dreary morning.
Turning into the kitchen, youpass your fully stocked pantry
and you silently offer up aprayer of gratitude for God's
provision and some wisebudgeting.
Perhaps later this afternoonyou can begin the cookie baking
(01:55):
with your children.
As your coffee brews, younotice the stack of Christmas
cards on the counter, and so youplace the cards by the front
door so that you don't forget toput them in the mailbox today.
On your way back to the kitchen, you see the advent wreath that
your children made over theweekend, and you smile thinking
about how excited they will beto light those candles and hear
(02:19):
the story of Jesus' birththroughout the next few weeks
With a hot cup of coffee in hand.
You grab a blanket from thenearby basket and locate your
own Advent devotional and yourBible.
Breathing deeply, you take yoursip of coffee and feel peace
wash over you.
It is in this moment that youknow this holiday season will be
(02:44):
different.
You are prepared for the busydays to come and you feel ready
to embrace the season with joyand love.
You remember the decision thatyou made back in September to
let this be the year you makeroom for the Savior in your
holiday plans, and now you getto harvest the reward of that
(03:07):
decision.
That's the picture that youwant to see, isn't it?
The month of December isnotoriously crazy.
It is full of parties andfestivals and choir concerts and
tree lighting ceremonies, andthen there are the gifts to buy,
the stockings, to stuff themeals, to prepare the cookies,
to bake the advent calendar, tokeep up with the travel plans,
(03:29):
to finalize, and it's honestlyno wonder that adults,
particularly women, feel themost stressed and overwhelmed
around the holidays.
It is interesting to me thatwhen the angels suddenly
appeared to the shepherds, luke2.14 says and suddenly there was
with the angel a multitude ofheavenly hosts praising God, and
(03:53):
saying of heavenly hostspraising God and saying Glory to
God in the highest and, onearth, peace among those with
whom he is pleased.
The angels were announcingpeace for this season, not
stress and overwhelm.
So what if there was a betterway to approach this season?
(04:14):
What if you decided to embraceexcellence and begin preparing
for Christmas now?
What if you had a clear visionfor what you would like the
holidays to be and could followthrough with peace and calm?
Home, friend, there is a way towake up on December 1st knowing
(04:40):
that all of the details aretaken care of and you get to
simply rest and enjoy the season.
In fact, jesus says in Matthew11, 28, come to me all who labor
and are heavy laden, and I willgive you rest.
So let's do that.
Let's lay down the pressure andburdens of this Christmas
(05:00):
season, let's lay them at thefeet of Jesus and choose instead
to delight in Him.
If this sounds like exactlywhat you need right now, then I
want to invite you to grab a penand maybe a piece of paper and
get ready to take some notes,because this year is going to be
different.
You are going to be different.
(05:23):
The most common sources ofholiday stress fall into four
main categories Overcommittedschedules, financial concerns,
social expectations andpressures, and family dynamics.
For the purpose of this episodetoday, I'm going to focus on
those first three categories.
(05:44):
I do plan to address the familydynamics category in a future
episode coming soon, but itneeds its own whole episode, so
more on that topic later.
For now, let's consider theseother three categories and in
order to really get into it, Iwant you to take a minute.
You have your piece of paper infront of you and I want to give
(06:06):
you a couple of questions toprayerfully consider.
If you are someone who likes tokeep a journal, maybe this
would be a good journal promptfor you.
Are someone who likes to keep ajournal, maybe this would be a
good journal prompt for you.
When it comes to the holidays,particularly Christmas, ask the
(06:26):
Lord what he wants your familyto focus on this year, start
with prayer, what traditions andevents truly bring life and joy
to you and your family, andwhat things can you let go of
this year.
I want you to think about thosequestions, take time to write
down some answers and somethoughts, decide your priorities
(06:47):
for the holiday seasonprayerfully and hopefully with
your spouse, by starting here,you are already headed in a more
peace-filled direction.
Otherwise, the noise and colorsand general chaos of the season
will overwhelm you.
But with God, it will be mucheasier to make decisions
(07:10):
centered around what mattersmost.
Centered around what mattersmost.
So, for example, the thingsthat matter most for our family
are intentionally celebratingthe Advent season through God's
word, baking cookies to sharewith our neighbors.
That's a way that we caninvolve our community.
We like to mail encouragingChristmas cards to all of our
(07:31):
family and friends, both nearand far, enjoying a couple of
festive events that bringdelight, and connecting together
as a family through the givingand receiving of thoughtful
gifts.
These are the things that wefeel led to prioritize for this
season.
Once you know what to prioritize, you can begin to simplify and
(07:54):
plan ahead.
So it starts with prayer and itstarts with thinking about what
is best for you and your familyin this season, knowing that
you cannot do it all.
So prioritize now.
If I have said this once, thenI have probably said it a
(08:17):
thousand times Protect yourcalendar.
Those overcommitted schedulesdon't happen on their own.
You allow them to happen whenyou forget to leave margin for
rest.
So right now, before you feeltempted to do all the things.
Plan which festive events youwill participate in and which
(08:39):
ones you will politely decline.
Now, I know you may not know theexact date of all of these
events.
If you like to attend eventsthat are in your own town, a lot
of those events are alreadyposted, like the days.
But if there are events thatyour family loves to participate
in and you don't know which daythey will land on yet, that's
(08:59):
okay.
Prioritize which events aremost important to you right now
and if you don't know thoseexact details, instead block off
days that will be for rest inyour calendar.
So focus on maybe a wholeweekend where you don't do
anything, no outside events.
Then guard those days fiercely,like for our family.
(09:24):
I know that there will be aparade in our town.
(09:57):
I don't know what day it is yet, I actually haven't looked it
up but I know that there is aparade.
And I know that there will be achoir concert, that my children
will be in a winter concert,and I also know that my
husband's command will have aholiday party.
I don't know what day that isyet, but I know that those are
three things that our familywould like to participate in
(10:18):
that bring us joy and that welove every holiday season.
So those events I am going toprioritize.
Everything else is going to goon like a little wait list of
sorts and we will onlyparticipate in those events if
we feel up to it.
So I'm prioritizing those threethings.
Saving the rest of the month forlots of rest and room for
(10:41):
margin and other events can be amaybe One of the biggest
stressors, I think, of theholiday season is the financial
strain that is often a result ofoverspending on gifts and also
all of those festivities andactivities.
They can add up, especially ifyou're looking at going to zoo
(11:05):
lights and going to thiscarnival and going to that.
All of that is expensive and itcan add up if you haven't
budgeted for those things.
So you can plan ahead now bycreating your budget today and
then you need to stick to it.
And that might be the hardestpart.
You can ask your spouse to holdyou accountable if necessary
(11:26):
and yes, I know that that soundsscary, it is scary, I know from
experience.
And yet it makes a hugedifference if you can submit the
different gift ideas or thingsthat you want to buy to your
spouse and then together decideif it makes sense and then
(11:48):
together decide if it makessense, stick to that budget.
I also recommend shopping forgifts ahead of time.
This can be huge in saving timeas well as money, and I have to
admit that the idea of shoppingearly for gifts I did come by
that.
Honestly, I have memories of mymom collecting stocking
stuffers in like July.
There was this bin up in hercloset and I would see her like
(12:09):
tucking little things in it andI was like what is that?
And then I would find out laterin my stocking.
So clearly, shopping early forgifts was modeled for me at a
young age, but it wasn't untilliving overseas that I truly
understood the benefits ofbuying gifts early.
When we moved to Germany, Ilearned that all of our
(12:31):
Christmas gifts needed to bepostmarked by Halloween in order
to ensure arrival to our lovedones back stateside.
So by following this guideline,all of my gifts were purchased,
wrapped and mailed beforeHalloween and I discovered how
(12:52):
refreshing it was to be donewith this major holiday task
before even November.
And because I loved how greatthat felt, I've been following
that rhythm ever since.
In fact, this is kind of funny,but you people always ask me
like but what if you sawsomething in the Black Friday
(13:13):
sales or something like that?
You know what I would do Iwould buy them for the next year
.
I know that's a little bitextreme.
You don't have to do that, butthis concept of having all of
your gifts purchased ahead oftime really stuck with me
because it relieved so muchstress.
So, practically speaking, youcan do this too.
You simply make a list of thedifferent people who you would
(13:37):
like to buy gifts for and then,next to each name, put your list
of ideas and again double checkthat those gift ideas fit in
your budget and then followthrough.
Make a goal to have all of thegift portion of your holiday
season finished by December 1stRight now.
That's my challenge to you.
I want you to try it this yearand just see if it doesn't help
(14:03):
tremendously for you.
Make a goal to have all of yourChristmas shopping done by
December 1st, and if you dofollow through with that and if
on December 1st, all of yourChristmas shopping is done, I
want you to send me a message onInstagram and I'm going to
celebrate with you.
Okay, I promise that this isvery doable, but you do have to
(14:24):
commit to your budget and toyour list.
Similarly, right now, we allknow that groceries are very
expensive, so decide ahead oftime what cookies or baking
things that you want to do forthe season.
What meals will you be hosting?
Be reasonable in what you havethe time and energy for and
(14:47):
don't be afraid to ask for help.
Perhaps you can set up a cookieexchange with some friends.
That way, you don't have tobake all of the different types
of cookies.
Or, if you are going to behosting, share the load by
inviting guests to bringspecific dishes to the meal.
Everyone always asks what can Ibring, so give them some
(15:09):
options.
And lastly, when it comes todecorating for the season,
consider what you already haveand how you might be able to
repurpose or freshen up thosethings.
It's very, very tempting to runover to Hobby Lobby or HomeGoods
and make your home look likeall of the other homes that you
see on Pinterest or all of oursocial media, and you end up
(15:31):
buying things that you don'treally need.
You can create a beautifullyfestive and cozy home with just
a few carefully selected items.
Now, when it comes to holidaystressors, I am convinced that
social expectations are theworst offender.
Too often, as women especially,we measure our worth based on
(15:57):
how we compare to everyone else.
I don't know why we do that,but we still struggle with
comparison, as I just mentionedbefore, wanting your home to
look a certain way based on whatyou saw someone else's home
look like.
So not only do we have socialexpectations creating stress,
but we put stress on ourselveswith our own unmet expectations,
(16:19):
and we feel that pressure to doit all and make it magical too,
and so you can blame socialmedia for this added pressure.
But a better use of your time isto shift from a performance
mindset to one of presence.
Focus less on everything beingmagical and just right and
(16:43):
instead be intentional withcreating space for relationships
and Christ-centeredconversations.
For example, in our family welove the daily Advent
devotionals and lighting candlesto symbolize different parts of
the Christmas story.
Our favorite carols and holidaymusic are playing nonstop in
(17:04):
our house all throughout themonth of December while we bake
cookies together and we read ourfavorite Christmas stories and
evening walks.
To see all of the pretty lightsforces us to slow down and
really savor the sweetness ofthe season.
Each of these cherishedChristmas traditions are simple
and inexpensive and lend moretowards time spent together than
(17:28):
striving to make everythingperfectly magical.
I asked my kids what were theirfavorite parts of Christmas,
like, what were their favoritetraditions, and these are the
things they listed.
They didn't mention all of thefestivals.
They didn't mention all of theother events.
Really, none of the things weresuper expensive that they
mentioned, and it just remindedme that what they really want is
(17:50):
time spent with their family.
So focus on the things thatmatter most to your family.
Ask your children what aretheir favorite parts of
Christmas.
A peace-filled Christmas seasonis found when we release control
and surrender our ownexpectations to the Lord.
(18:12):
Take a moment and picture aChristmas season where you feel
refreshed instead of drained.
When you align your prioritiesto God's plans for your family
this season, when you protectyour calendar and focus on
presence over perfection, youcan fully embrace a stress-free
(18:36):
holiday season.
To close this episode, I wouldlike to read most of Psalm 46 to
you.
As you listen, consider howthese verses remind us to slow
down and truly know how mightyis our God and Savior.
It is my prayer that, as youget into the preparations for
(18:59):
this holiday season, that youcome back to this psalm, often
for peace and reassurance.
Often for peace and reassurance.
Psalm 46, 1-10.
God is our refuge and strength,a very present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear,though the earth give way,
(19:25):
though the mountains be movedinto the heart of the sea.
Though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble
at its swelling, there is ariver whose streams make glad.
The city of God, the holyhabitation of the Most High God,
is in the midst of her.
She will not be moved.
God will help her.
When morning dawns the nationsrage, the kingdoms totter, he
utters His voice.
(19:46):
The earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us.
The Be still and know that I amGod.
With just under three months until Christmas, I
thought that now might be agreat time to start discussing
the holidays, so that you canstep into this traditionally
very busy season feeling calmand peace-filled.
You want to embrace theholidays with excellence and you
(01:14):
want to feel relaxed andrefreshed instead of frantic and
overwhelmed, and you know thatpreparation will help you with
that.
So picture this.
I can see you now.
The house is quiet.
As you creep down the stairs,the soft twinkling lights of the
(01:34):
Christmas tree provide just theright amount of coziness for
this otherwise dreary morning.
Turning into the kitchen, youpass your fully stocked pantry
and you silently offer up aprayer of gratitude for God's
provision and some wisebudgeting.
Perhaps later this afternoonyou can begin the cookie baking
(01:55):
with your children.
As your coffee brews, younotice the stack of Christmas
cards on the counter, and so youplace the cards by the front
door so that you don't forget toput them in the mailbox today.
On your way back to the kitchen, you see the advent wreath that
your children made over theweekend, and you smile thinking
about how excited they will beto light those candles and hear
(02:19):
the story of Jesus' birththroughout the next few weeks
With a hot cup of coffee in hand.
You grab a blanket from thenearby basket and locate your
own Advent devotional and yourBible.
Breathing deeply, you take yoursip of coffee and feel peace
wash over you.
It is in this moment that youknow this holiday season will be
(02:44):
different.
You are prepared for the busydays to come and you feel ready
to embrace the season with joyand love.
You remember the decision thatyou made back in September to
let this be the year you makeroom for the Savior in your
holiday plans, and now you getto harvest the reward of that
(03:07):
decision.
That's the picture that youwant to see, isn't it?
The month of December isnotoriously crazy.
It is full of parties andfestivals and choir concerts and
tree lighting ceremonies, andthen there are the gifts to buy,
the stockings, to stuff themeals, to prepare the cookies,
to bake the advent calendar, tokeep up with the travel plans,
(03:29):
to finalize, and it's honestlyno wonder that adults,
particularly women, feel themost stressed and overwhelmed
around the holidays.
It is interesting to me thatwhen the angels suddenly
appeared to the shepherds, luke2.14 says and suddenly there was
with the angel a multitude ofheavenly hosts praising God, and
(03:53):
saying of heavenly hostspraising God and saying Glory to
God in the highest and, onearth, peace among those with
whom he is pleased.
The angels were announcingpeace for this season, not
stress and overwhelm.
So what if there was a betterway to approach this season?
(04:14):
What if you decided to embraceexcellence and begin preparing
for Christmas now?
What if you had a clear visionfor what you would like the
holidays to be and could followthrough with peace and calm?
Home, friend, there is a way towake up on December 1st knowing
(04:40):
that all of the details aretaken care of and you get to
simply rest and enjoy the season.
In fact, jesus says in Matthew11, 28, come to me all who labor
and are heavy laden, and I willgive you rest.
So let's do that.
Let's lay down the pressure andburdens of this Christmas
(05:00):
season, let's lay them at thefeet of Jesus and choose instead
to delight in Him.
If this sounds like exactlywhat you need right now, then I
want to invite you to grab a penand maybe a piece of paper and
get ready to take some notes,because this year is going to be
different.
You are going to be different.
(05:23):
The most common sources ofholiday stress fall into four
main categories Overcommittedschedules, financial concerns,
social expectations andpressures, and family dynamics.
For the purpose of this episodetoday, I'm going to focus on
those first three categories.
(05:44):
I do plan to address the familydynamics category in a future
episode coming soon, but itneeds its own whole episode, so
more on that topic later.
For now, let's consider theseother three categories and in
order to really get into it, Iwant you to take a minute.
You have your piece of paper infront of you and I want to give
(06:06):
you a couple of questions toprayerfully consider.
If you are someone who likes tokeep a journal, maybe this
would be a good journal promptfor you.
Are someone who likes to keep ajournal, maybe this would be a
good journal prompt for you.
When it comes to the holidays,particularly Christmas, ask the
(06:26):
Lord what he wants your familyto focus on this year, start
with prayer, what traditions andevents truly bring life and joy
to you and your family, andwhat things can you let go of
this year.
I want you to think about thosequestions, take time to write
down some answers and somethoughts, decide your priorities
(06:47):
for the holiday seasonprayerfully and hopefully with
your spouse, by starting here,you are already headed in a more
peace-filled direction.
Otherwise, the noise and colorsand general chaos of the season
will overwhelm you.
But with God, it will be mucheasier to make decisions
(07:10):
centered around what mattersmost.
Centered around what mattersmost.
So, for example, the thingsthat matter most for our family
are intentionally celebratingthe Advent season through God's
word, baking cookies to sharewith our neighbors.
That's a way that we caninvolve our community.
We like to mail encouragingChristmas cards to all of our
(07:31):
family and friends, both nearand far, enjoying a couple of
festive events that bringdelight, and connecting together
as a family through the givingand receiving of thoughtful
gifts.
These are the things that wefeel led to prioritize for this
season.
Once you know what to prioritize, you can begin to simplify and
(07:54):
plan ahead.
So it starts with prayer and itstarts with thinking about what
is best for you and your familyin this season, knowing that
you cannot do it all.
So prioritize now.
If I have said this once, thenI have probably said it a
(08:17):
thousand times Protect yourcalendar.
Those overcommitted schedulesdon't happen on their own.
You allow them to happen whenyou forget to leave margin for
rest.
So right now, before you feeltempted to do all the things.
Plan which festive events youwill participate in and which
(08:39):
ones you will politely decline.
Now, I know you may not know theexact date of all of these
events.
If you like to attend eventsthat are in your own town, a lot
of those events are alreadyposted, like the days.
But if there are events thatyour family loves to participate
in and you don't know which daythey will land on yet, that's
(08:59):
okay.
Prioritize which events aremost important to you right now
and if you don't know thoseexact details, instead block off
days that will be for rest inyour calendar.
So focus on maybe a wholeweekend where you don't do
anything, no outside events.
Then guard those days fiercely,like for our family.
(09:24):
I know that there will be aparade in our town.
(09:57):
I don't know what day it is yet, I actually haven't looked it
up but I know that there is aparade.
And I know that there will be achoir concert, that my children
will be in a winter concert,and I also know that my
husband's command will have aholiday party.
I don't know what day that isyet, but I know that those are
three things that our familywould like to participate in
(10:18):
that bring us joy and that welove every holiday season.
So those events I am going toprioritize.
Everything else is going to goon like a little wait list of
sorts and we will onlyparticipate in those events if
we feel up to it.
So I'm prioritizing those threethings.
Saving the rest of the month forlots of rest and room for
(10:41):
margin and other events can be amaybe One of the biggest
stressors, I think, of theholiday season is the financial
strain that is often a result ofoverspending on gifts and also
all of those festivities andactivities.
They can add up, especially ifyou're looking at going to zoo
(11:05):
lights and going to thiscarnival and going to that.
All of that is expensive and itcan add up if you haven't
budgeted for those things.
So you can plan ahead now bycreating your budget today and
then you need to stick to it.
And that might be the hardestpart.
You can ask your spouse to holdyou accountable if necessary
(11:26):
and yes, I know that that soundsscary, it is scary, I know from
experience.
And yet it makes a hugedifference if you can submit the
different gift ideas or thingsthat you want to buy to your
spouse and then together decideif it makes sense and then
(11:48):
together decide if it makessense, stick to that budget.
I also recommend shopping forgifts ahead of time.
This can be huge in saving timeas well as money, and I have to
admit that the idea of shoppingearly for gifts I did come by
that.
Honestly, I have memories of mymom collecting stocking
stuffers in like July.
There was this bin up in hercloset and I would see her like
(12:09):
tucking little things in it andI was like what is that?
And then I would find out laterin my stocking.
So clearly, shopping early forgifts was modeled for me at a
young age, but it wasn't untilliving overseas that I truly
understood the benefits ofbuying gifts early.
When we moved to Germany, Ilearned that all of our
(12:31):
Christmas gifts needed to bepostmarked by Halloween in order
to ensure arrival to our lovedones back stateside.
So by following this guideline,all of my gifts were purchased,
wrapped and mailed beforeHalloween and I discovered how
(12:52):
refreshing it was to be donewith this major holiday task
before even November.
And because I loved how greatthat felt, I've been following
that rhythm ever since.
In fact, this is kind of funny,but you people always ask me
like but what if you sawsomething in the Black Friday
(13:13):
sales or something like that?
You know what I would do Iwould buy them for the next year
.
I know that's a little bitextreme.
You don't have to do that, butthis concept of having all of
your gifts purchased ahead oftime really stuck with me
because it relieved so muchstress.
So, practically speaking, youcan do this too.
You simply make a list of thedifferent people who you would
(13:37):
like to buy gifts for and then,next to each name, put your list
of ideas and again double checkthat those gift ideas fit in
your budget and then followthrough.
Make a goal to have all of thegift portion of your holiday
season finished by December 1stRight now.
That's my challenge to you.
I want you to try it this yearand just see if it doesn't help
(14:03):
tremendously for you.
Make a goal to have all of yourChristmas shopping done by
December 1st, and if you dofollow through with that and if
on December 1st, all of yourChristmas shopping is done, I
want you to send me a message onInstagram and I'm going to
celebrate with you.
Okay, I promise that this isvery doable, but you do have to
(14:24):
commit to your budget and toyour list.
Similarly, right now, we allknow that groceries are very
expensive, so decide ahead oftime what cookies or baking
things that you want to do forthe season.
What meals will you be hosting?
Be reasonable in what you havethe time and energy for and
(14:47):
don't be afraid to ask for help.
Perhaps you can set up a cookieexchange with some friends.
That way, you don't have tobake all of the different types
of cookies.
Or, if you are going to behosting, share the load by
inviting guests to bringspecific dishes to the meal.
Everyone always asks what can Ibring, so give them some
(15:09):
options.
And lastly, when it comes todecorating for the season,
consider what you already haveand how you might be able to
repurpose or freshen up thosethings.
It's very, very tempting to runover to Hobby Lobby or HomeGoods
and make your home look likeall of the other homes that you
see on Pinterest or all of oursocial media, and you end up
(15:31):
buying things that you don'treally need.
You can create a beautifullyfestive and cozy home with just
a few carefully selected items.
Now, when it comes to holidaystressors, I am convinced that
social expectations are theworst offender.
Too often, as women especially,we measure our worth based on
(15:57):
how we compare to everyone else.
I don't know why we do that,but we still struggle with
comparison, as I just mentionedbefore, wanting your home to
look a certain way based on whatyou saw someone else's home
look like.
So not only do we have socialexpectations creating stress,
but we put stress on ourselveswith our own unmet expectations,
(16:19):
and we feel that pressure to doit all and make it magical too,
and so you can blame socialmedia for this added pressure.
But a better use of your time isto shift from a performance
mindset to one of presence.
Focus less on everything beingmagical and just right and
(16:43):
instead be intentional withcreating space for relationships
and Christ-centeredconversations.
For example, in our family welove the daily Advent
devotionals and lighting candlesto symbolize different parts of
the Christmas story.
Our favorite carols and holidaymusic are playing nonstop in
(17:04):
our house all throughout themonth of December while we bake
cookies together and we read ourfavorite Christmas stories and
evening walks.
To see all of the pretty lightsforces us to slow down and
really savor the sweetness ofthe season.
Each of these cherishedChristmas traditions are simple
and inexpensive and lend moretowards time spent together than
(17:28):
striving to make everythingperfectly magical.
I asked my kids what were theirfavorite parts of Christmas,
like, what were their favoritetraditions, and these are the
things they listed.
They didn't mention all of thefestivals.
They didn't mention all of theother events.
Really, none of the things weresuper expensive that they
mentioned, and it just remindedme that what they really want is
(17:50):
time spent with their family.
So focus on the things thatmatter most to your family.
Ask your children what aretheir favorite parts of
Christmas.
A peace-filled Christmas seasonis found when we release control
and surrender our ownexpectations to the Lord.
(18:12):
Take a moment and picture aChristmas season where you feel
refreshed instead of drained.
When you align your prioritiesto God's plans for your family
this season, when you protectyour calendar and focus on
presence over perfection, youcan fully embrace a stress-free
(18:36):
holiday season.
To close this episode, I wouldlike to read most of Psalm 46 to
you.
As you listen, consider howthese verses remind us to slow
down and truly know how mightyis our God and Savior.
It is my prayer that, as youget into the preparations for
(18:59):
this holiday season, that youcome back to this psalm, often
for peace and reassurance.
Often for peace and reassurance.
Psalm 46, 1-10.
God is our refuge and strength,a very present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear,though the earth give way,
(19:25):
though the mountains be movedinto the heart of the sea.
Though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble
at its swelling, there is ariver whose streams make glad.
The city of God, the holyhabitation of the Most High God,
is in the midst of her.
She will not be moved.
God will help her.
When morning dawns the nationsrage, the kingdoms totter, he
utters His voice.
(19:46):
The earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us.
The Be still and know that I amGod.
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