Pre-Christmas Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions are nice, but they don’t come for another month.  How about some Advent/pre-Christmas resolutions??  The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas turns into a crazy rush from one thing to another.  A little pre-planning can help me to make conscious decisions to keep God in the center of it all…and help me keep my sanity!

Bring on the resolutions!!

·         In the midst of a lot of extra Christmas ‘stuff,’ I will take at least 5 minutes a day to quietly sit with God, reflecting on my day and asking for guidance.

·         Every time I receive a Christmas card I will say a prayer for the people who sent it.

·         I will make sure that I have time with Shannon and Ben.  It’s easy to want to be a part of a zillion worthy events…I won’t do that at the expense of family time.  (Churches are notorious for telling people to ‘slow down’ before Christmas and then scheduling a bunch of special activities…we’re trying not to do that at Peace this year!)

·         I will do most of my Christmas shopping on-line to avoid the frustration of long lines (some people enjoy getting out to the stores…it drives me nuts!).

·         When I hear instrumental versions of the Christmas songs of faith (Joy to the World, O Come All Ye Faithful, etc.) I will try to remember to sing the words (in my head if I’m in public so I don’t embarrass my family too much!).  That will take the songs from my ‘general Christmas smarminess’ category to my ‘faith building’ category.

·         I will not rush into decorating the house for Christmas, making it another chore to get through. Instead, I will take it slow and enjoy each decoration as it goes up (thankfully I have the lights on my roof…I admit putting them up brings thoughts of ambulance rides, which kinda kills the fun).

·         This is a time of year when I usually indulge on cookies!  To keep my waist-line in order I will commit to running at least 15 miles a week (in addition to playing basketball a couple times a week).  I may even attempt to eat fewer cookies.

·         To avoid the last minute rush of sermon writing, I will have the Christmas Eve sermon written by December 18^th.  That way I’ll be able to use my full creativity in writing it.

These will work for me!  What resolutions might you come up with to keep the ‘Christ’ in ‘Christmas’ in your life?