The Whole Fam-Damily
During the holiday season emotions often go into overdrive. Music on the radio evokes happy feelings of childhood when worries and stresses were less. Commercials depict happy families cuddling together with beautiful decorations and fluffy snow. The reality is, for some, that time is passing too quickly and debt is on the rise! Hustle and bustle prevail as we try to get everything as perfect as possible. The perfect food, the perfect gifts the perfectly decorated home. It's exhausting...and then, there's the accession of family...
The holidays can bring family together, or make it very evident how apart they really are. Often this time of year is the only occasion we see many of our family. Maybe it's the only time of year we WANT to see some members of our family. Anticipation or excitement, even both, can muddle the whole season because of the assembling of folks, but there is an antidote.
Picturing the hilarious efforts of Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation, we can relate to some of the family member portrayals the characters act out so well. The opinionated, hypochondriac, off-beat cousins, surprise visitors, the list goes on. How do we focus on the good things when the weird, off-putting, annoying things are so loud and in our face? Well, we can try to remember that this time will be over in a few days. We can make a list of the things we are thankful for. We can pray...
Exodus 20:12 KJV "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee." One day as I read this, it hit me that it doesn't matter how we feel about our parents, we are told to honor them. So, because God says, we should make every effort to treat them with respect, even when it's hard; when we don't understand their actions. For some people that's an incredible effort. But I have to think too, that this scripture lends to an answer for how to "deal" with any family member that irks us. If we turn our eyes and our hearts, to what God wants, we can more easily manage our feelings toward those that cause our feathers to ruffle.
Being more like Christ is not that far-fetched when we realize how He loves us even with our oddities. If He can accept ours, when He knows the wholeness of them, we can surely accept other's long enough to enjoy a little time with those we love...like...tolerate...are born to the same lineage...we feel are from a different planet; they may feel the same about us!
~Heavenly Father, what a blessing to have days on the calendar that cause us to carve out time for others. We pray that you intervene where situations make it difficult to enjoy these days. Please give us all a heart like yours and remind us why we can be thankful, joyful and finally merry. Thank you for being you: always present, always loving, forgiving, and helping. In Jesus' name, Amen.
