Holiday Stress

The holidays are stressful.  

Oh, some of it might be happy stress -the excitement of visiting people or going to parties, the merry business of baking or decorating the house.  But even when life is going well, there is unhappy stress - the pressure to get too much done, expectations on people or events that are too high, over-sugared children who need to cultivate thankfulness, over-sugared and over-worked self (who probably also needs to cultivate thankfulness), the spouse whose priorities are not dovetailing your own.

When life is not going well, the stress so much worse, but that is a post for another day.

A wise friend of mine was sharing about dealing with holiday stress.  She commented that we don’t give ourselves time for things to go wrong.  There’s no slack to accommodate illness or trouble.  We need to schedule down time for ourselves.  And keep it.  

Something that haunts me this year is a reading from Zechariah 7:

The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the LORD by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?”

Was it really for me?

WOW.

When I bake Christmas cookies, will it be for Christ's, or for my family’s sake?

When I send cards, will it be for Jesus’ sake, or so that I don’t get in trouble with my friends and relations?

When I decorate the house, will it be for the Lord, or will it be for tradition?

When I hunt for the perfect Christmas gift, will it be unto God or for the sake of my own reputation?

When I go to church and sing carols, will it be for my Rescuer or for the habits of my culture?

If I fast or read the bible, is it by the Holy Spirit, or is it for self righteousness?

In the “too much” of Christmas time I struggle to remember that Jesus accomplished ALL that he was supposed to in 3 short years of public ministry.  And he did it without cars, phones, online shopping, or even so much as a printing press.

Heavenly Father, give me a heart to do only what pleases You.