Friday, November 5, 2010

My First Christmas Part 2
By Lisa Boyer

“Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord or fully declare His praise?”
Psalm 106:2


I had a good Christmas!!!

If you’re surprised that I say this when Christmas is still so far away, you’ll need to read my devotional entitled My First Christmas(1). In it, I shared my historical “dislike” for Christmas, the seemingly inevitable depression that accompanied it, my hope that I would be able to successfully celebrate this Christmas and my plan to do that on a specific day before December 25.

And so I did; I celebrated Christmas on October 25, 2010. How I celebrated my Christmas isn’t important or even that interesting, but what God did was amazing.

While planning for my Christmas celebration, I often found God bringing specific incidents to mind that contributed to my negative feelings toward Christmas. Not that I hadn’t thought back on them before, but it had always been during moments of Christmas depression that fed on those negative memories. This time was different. God was cleaning house and getting rid of the garbage I was holding on to. I don’t know about you, but I don’t find cleaning to be a fun task and being cleaned is even less fun… but living in a cleaned house is incredible!

He worked through my memory bank and my heart, healing the scars of the past and setting me free. It didn’t change anything that had happened in the past, but it allowed me to move on, leaving it in the past.

During this process, I discovered something…something that changes Christmas for me forever! Christmas isn’t about me! I realize how obvious that should be; however, each Christmas that I spent hoping that somehow someone would make up for my bad Christmases made that Christmas about me. But it isn’t about me, it never has been, it never could be and it never should be.

Yes, I had a good Christmas, because I spent it celebrating the One whom Christmas is truly all about, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I’m even planning on having another good Christmas this year… on December 25, 2010.

GOING DEEPER:
1. Today, will you make a plan to intentionally and personally celebrate the birth of Jesus this Christmas season?
2. Are you holding on to garbage from your past? Will you let God begin cleaning your house today?
3. Do you struggle with unrealistic expectations of others during the holiday season? Will you surrender those expectations to God?

FURTHER READING:
Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 2:1-20; Isaiah 9:6

Lisa has been married to Ted for 18 years and they have two teenage sons. She is a co-leader for a Junior High girls’ small group at Oakwood Church.

(1) My First Christmas October 29, 2010 http://www.oakwoodfreshstart.blogspot.com/
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