What if we remembered the reason for the season every day of the year? Maybe it would feel like Christmas all year long......how lovely.
"But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful." Psalms 68:3
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas....may the joy stay with you. Z
30 comments:
Thank you, Z. Thank God we have the blessed promise...especially during the holidays when our loved ones are missed so much.
God Bless you in the coming New Year!
I hope you had a good Christmas, too, Z!
(((((Z)))))
amen Z!
Hi Z, How did your Christmas go?
We have about 9 inches of snow!
Merry Christmas to you Z, and God bless; the times are turbulent and the waters deep and cloudy. Navigating them will be trying and emotional. We simply have to do it.
BZ
Snowing here, light dustings over the last 3 days, but barely up to an inch yet.
Just cold enough to burn the fireplace during the day for the added benefit of not having to go outside to smoke a cigarette (though chopping wood while smoking is quite a workout)
I'm often bummed out by Christmas because the expectations of the day over other days are so high that Christmas turns out to be just another day you're glad is over with and behind you when it passes. Christmas just isn't the "magical" time it was when I was a kid.
I don't get depressed at Christmas, but I can see why it's the time of year suicide rates go up. The message of Christmas is all but missing these days.
Christmas every day? It would take remembering the true message of Christmas day every day.
Quite a radical thought there.
Lovely Z, and thank you for such a positive message.
I admit, even at my age, I still get excited at Christmas. I love everything about it. Even getting tired with all there is to do. It's a nice tired.
I think if we want a special time it's up to us to make it special.
Beamish, you can come to our house and smoke, we do too, and no one get's sent outside at the Pris's.
Pris
Heh, Pris.
I don't mind going outside in the "fresh air" to smoke with over 150 years of industrial pollution and decades of atmospheric nuclear bomb testing particulates floating around, as long as I don't have to put on Eskimo gear to do so.
Absolutely, Beamish; one would have to remember the real reason for Christmas (not gifts, ham and turkey dinners)....
then, it might work. Much less depression, much happier, moral, uplifting days.
At church this morning, that was the exact message; weird how that happens. "Keep Christmas with you every day by remembering the reason for it"....
Pris, we have a couple here in my bldg who smoke...they OWN their home, no worries about an apt landlord or anything,and they always smoke outside. Their condo front steps are by the underground parking entry and there they so often are as I drive in....sometimes wearing SLICKERS for warmth and smoking up a storm. OUTSIDE their own home.
I just don't get it. They're not moving, it's not like they want the smell out for a pending sale.....they've always done this!
Well, to each his own, huh?
Sue, my Christmas was really pretty nice. I did everything different Family was wonderful and I got through it by changing the whole normal Christmas scenario.
Now to get through New Year's Eve and my birthday in early January. Then, my stepkids go back to Munich and my new normal life will start.
God help me. It isn't fun...it almost doesn't really sink in that he's not just away and isn't coming back....it's so ridiculous, so astonishingly stupid and final and awful...BUT...it is what it is.
Pris is right when she says we have to make our times special; we have to look for the positive in such negativity.....almost force ourselves to smile and be kind and happy. It works. I have to admit. xxx
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30.)
I can't imagine how you're coping so well, but I'm glad that you are. Hang in there, Z.
good idea
cube, I, too, have no idea how I'm doing this.
Just keep doing what you're doing.
:-)
Christmas was great here in Appalachia. 2009 is about over, and I won't be sorry to see it go. I just wish 2010 looked to be better. But we'll all find out.
I keep the Nativity scene up all year long inside a glass cabinet. I collected the figurines one by one at a local five-and-dime some five decades ago, when I was a mere child barely beyond toddler age.
Keeping that little set viewable all year long helps us to remember Christmas every day -- the peace and the Promise that pass all understanding.
Z,
Now to get through New Year's Eve and my birthday in early January. Then, my stepkids go back to Munich and my new normal life will start.
Rely on Him, and He'll see you through the most difficult days. "New normal" is tough -- as this household is learning right now.
Glad to hear that your Christmas was a good one. Ours certainly wasn't -- terrible, in fact. I don't want another day like that again! If I weren't so drained, I'd write about it. But right now the feelings are too raw.
Well put
You've been in my thoughts, my dear. Keep moving forward. God Bless.
Think about each verse of this favorite Christmas Carol, and learn how it projects an ideal Christian vision for all life to come:
O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight
For Christ is born of Mary
And gathered all above
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love
O morning stars together
Proclaim the holy birth
And praises sing to God the King
And Peace to men on earth
How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may his His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in.
O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born in us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide in us
Our Lord Emmanuel
~ FreeThinke
Perhaps it is with good reason that we do not know the precise day of the birth of Jesus
You're all 'only' email/blogging friends, but LOOK at what you write here; think how kind you all are, you're all conservative, all have hearts as big as Texas and the support you give is immeasurable.
I'm so very, very fond of EACH and every one of you here...thank you.
Always On Watch, I'm so sorry your Christmas was 'terrible'....I pray for you and Mr. AOW.
Cube...will do :-) xxxx
FT...beautiful words, thanks for that reminder.
Hermit, we sure will find out.. God bless us, one and all.
Karen, good to see you and thanks so much for your comment.
Chuck, xxxx
Always On Watch, I keep a very small nativity scene on a small table in the living room at Christmas and I have a votive in front of it which I light a lot during the season. I take the scene down with the Christmas things but leave that votive out and I like to think it remembers what it shone in front of all year long and gives a different glow because of it!
Hi, Shoprat...what a wonderful thought. We don't know...ANY day could be the birth of the savior and we should all live like that.
Thanks for that..I love that thought xxx I hope your folks are doing okay.xx
Shoprat, by the way..check out BethlehemStar.com (or org?)
A friend of mine has kind of figured out 12/25 very well COULD have been the day....you'll be amazed.
Z - I'm glad your Christmas went well.
The best way to get through this difficult time is to look it head on and be realistic - that it really has happened. But no matter what it will be hard.
I wondered if New Year's was also a special time for you and Mr. Z.
Tomorrow is the last day the family will be here and I'm torn between not wanting them to go and being glad to have my house back.
Hi, Sue...I have both stepkids here now so I kind of get what you mean about having the house back :-) (3 weeks to go....oy...but they're good kids and keep busy and are a great help and, of course, they're grieving their dear Dad, too)
No, New Years wasn't too special for us; mostly because I"m not a fan of that day, never have been. He'd have partied hearty, but I don't love it...so, the last few years, we just had a neighbor couple of good friends here for good food and watching the dumb ball drop at midnight on TV and I'd be wishing I was sound asleep........!! I always felt kind of bad for Mr. Z because he liked a party more than I ever did. And we DID have parties in the past; with dancing and the whole 9 yds, but..not lately! So, it won't be very meaningful for me, or painful. EXCEPT that it's the first new year I'll live without my dear wonderful man...THAT will hurt. Then, I have my birthday in early-ish January...then the kids will go a few days later...
I am realistic, it just suddenly hits me sometimes, the unbelievableness of his REALLY NOT coming back.
Z - I suppose in time you will adjust, and yet there will always be the loss.
New Year's Eve is a time when I've liked to just be home. My husband goes to bed early, so last year I planned some fun things for myself. Now I will do the same next week.
It will just be nice to get the house back in order after the week with six kids. It's hard when everywhere you look there is a mess. But just being with them is worth it.
I've been thinking about you.
there will certainly always be the loss, Sue...ALWAYS. And it's a huge loss; and he deserved to be loving life now as he always did.
thanks for your thoughts.....
I know what you mean about the mess of company, no matter WHO it is.
My stepkids are grown and neat but there's STUFF around...you know. Enjoy getting things back to normal. I have 3 weeks to go and, like you, I'm not complaining; it's good to have them here even with their 'stuff'.(emotional and physical)
xxx
Some people wish for Christmas everday for the completely wrong reason (getting gifts!) but the JOY and the miracle part is what we should reflect on everyday and be thankful, good Christmas message Z!
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