Be Still!

The holidays are upon us which means that the madness will soon begin if it hasn’t already. This is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year according to a popular Christmas song but is it? We spend so much time, myself included, looking for that perfect gift to give. (Like my 5 year-old nephew is really going to stress out if my gift is not the most perfect one!) Oh the pressure!

Or maybe you stress way too much over the way your house is or isn’t decorated, again myself included. I mean, how many Christmas trees do you really need to put up each year?! (At the Brady house we have 2 but have done 3 in the past…can you say over done?) And if you can’t decorate with as much fanfare and beauty as the cover of your favorite magazine’s holiday issue would you rather not decorate at all?

These are exactly the things that seem to plague my holiday season each and every year! It all starts at the beginning of November, I can almost set my watch by it…for real! First, it’s the dreaded Christmas card picture followed by the Santa list (which is it’s own burdensome task…how much junk do 4 kids need anyway?) then onto packing up for Thanksgiving then coming home to wrap gifts like crazy only to pack them up 3 weeks later to go out of town again for Christmas. When it’s all said and done, I have invested 2 months of my life into what ends as a frenzy of torn through wrapping paper, empty boxes, and toys that were so passionately wished for that are now strewn on the floor like yesterday’s news. Sound familiar or is it just me?

So as I’ve approached this season, God has continued to bombard me with a particular verse found in Psalm 46. It’s probably the easiest verse to remember but the absolute hardest to apply. The verse is this, “be still and know that I am God.” I found it in another translation and it says it differently, maybe even better, “cease striving and know that I am God.”

Isn’t that what we’re all doing, especially at this time of year: striving ? Striving for that perfect gift, perfect decorations, perfect Christmas card and sometimes even the appearance of the perfect children and family. Maybe that’s why I’m so tired during the holidays. I spend all of my time striving and very little time being still and just taking in what it is that God longs to give me each year. Such a special time of year to enjoy family and friends and most of all to think about the promise that we don’t have to do anything but know that God is God. What an incredible time of year to be still.

So that’s what I’m going to try to do this year. I’m going to be still and quiet the stress that says I need to do it all and instead enjoy the true gifts that this holiday has to offer. The gift of stillness.