Some Really Good Holiday Advice

 

This Christmas, as you are gathered around your table, celebrating the birth of Jesus and eating sumptuously, remember that along with all the warm and fuzzy of being with family, comes also the woolly and thorny pieces. 

Much like the humble stable, the manger, the traditional donkey, two camels, and the little babe, it is both glorious and stark. The birth of our Saviour... The Way, The Truth, The Light, shining from the musty hay; like the nativity so often displays.

For at the dinner table, the Uncle will repeat that embarrassing story. One of those fine relatives will talk loudly and make the grossest food noises, at least one of them.  An older, wiser sibling will again poke fun at and/or make predictions of failure toward another, all in good fun you know, expecting the same reaction they have gotten for years...a few good laughs and humor. Wherein all parties are expected to feel love, some don't. But they bluff and hide and take the joke because that is expected.

At family dinners, there are tendencies to be put in a box and labeled. Because your family watched you grow and develop, you have a mutual and shared history. They like the stories they believe to be true of you to continue. It's more comfortable, almost a tradition, to make a joke out of you and your idiosyncrasies. 

For the fumbling sibling who hasn't checked in or formed a relationship with you, it makes them feel better about themselves, a way on their part to do a quick scan and assess that you are still fitting into that particular place... for some, its a way to bury past hurts rather than facing them.

Communication gets hard sometimes. Especially if in the last year, you had to face something alone that you could not explain to the rest of the family...you knew they were there and that they cared...but it was too much effort to confide in any of them...because one thing family always wants to do, is fix things. And some things, only God can fix. Like the infamous fruitcake, it needs to be soaked longer in prayer and in the Word. Maybe next year it will be ok to talk about it, but for now, it needs to rest and wait and be still...Trust in God.

So anyway, not every Christmas dinner will be a naturally, good time. Here are a few simple ways to go and have a good time:

Go in prayer and in peace. Go humble and kind. Do your prep work. Ask God for your responses. He knows ahead of your time together, exactly where the conversations is going to go. Be willing to let it, and let it to God as it goes all haywire in your point of view.

In quietness and confidence of God...entrust every sticky and prickly communication to the One who judges righteously...this takes the work out of being right or wrong. 

Recognize the enemy's tactics and let them deflect off your armor of God that you obviously should be wearing under your Crazy Christmas Sweater. 

Say "No" to Satan's attempt to invite you into debate and discussions you have no business being in. Grace of God, Baby. Titus 2. I invite you to read it before you go.

The enemy of our souls wants to be involved in our Christmas dinners and he is happiest if he can do this through family members. He gets a foot in every time unkind words are said. He even uses interrupting and bad manners to get us to fold and be disgusted with each other.

Go and tell it around your table what Jesus Christ is doing in your heart this Christmas. Don't be pretend about it. Be real. Celebrate. Be joyful. Joy in the Lord. Sing of the goodness of God every time someone wants to bash something or someone. Overcome the bad with this: Don't pick up on it. Let the mean words fall on deaf ears because God's voice is stronger. There is nothing wrong with silence. God is our Defender if something needs defending. Let Him. Don't you. 

Go and give love and be love...God's love...Jesus...The Saviour of the World.