I can hardly believe it! I have spent the last several hours writing four heart-felt letters to family members who are going through great difficulty and ... (this is the believe it or not part) I started filling out my Christmas cards, an activity I haven’t done in perhaps ten years. I spent hours upon hours, writing today. When I write, I typically write using a computer but today I wrote by hand and with a writing instrument. My fingers feel a bit cramped at the moment but my heart feels full. I thoroughly enjoyed writing each letter and filling out each Christmas card with words and desires and prayers for dear loved ones.
The other day, a fellow Facebook friend and blogger posted a provocative statement on Facebook, one I have claimed as my holiday mantra. I loved it so much that I re-posted it with permission on FB because it makes so much sense and partly because I hope it catches on. It’s brilliant!
The person who wrote these lovely words is Shauna Niequist. She an author and blogger and if you would like to follow her blog you can click here. She wrote: “My intention for this holiday season: to choose quality over quantity, meaning over mania, people over pressure, relationship over rushing.” Isn’t that lovely? And doesn’t that make sense? If you’re reading this today, I hope you’ll choose this as your holiday mantra as well.
Now that the Thanksgiving holiday is over, I’m working on activities that will prepare my heart for Christmas. Christmas is such a lovely time of the year and some of us miss it because its become so commercialized and because we get caught up in "busy" and forget what it's all about. Every day until Christmas arrives, I’ve determined to carve out some quality and meaningful time to slow down and to do things that will nourish my soul and choose activities that will help me appreciate the season and the people in it. Today I did that through letter writing and writing notes in my Christmas cards to friends and family. Yesterday I did this through spending time with family.
The holiday season is in full gear now and this season my desire for you is the gift of more peace and more joy. If you have peace and if you have joy and if you have more of it, that covers a multitude of things. And if you're struggling with peace these days and if you you're not experiencing joy in your life right now, when it happens, and it will happen dear one, it will cover a multitude of things as well. Think about that for a second. What would more peace and more joy feel like and look like to you?
My desire for you in this beautiful and sacred season is that you would think about things and find things to do that would bring you more peace and more joy and that your hearts would become so full that God’s goodness would overflow from it so that His Son would be magnified and glorified. When our hearts are full like that, we’re carried by His love and we become a blessing to others and promoters of more peace and more joy. And that's always a lovely thing, isn't it? The world as I see it, could use more peace and more joy because there's such a shortage of that these days. The kind of peace and the kind of joy I desire for you is the kind that lasts, the kind that only happens super naturally, the kind that only comes from a holy God.
In closing, may we all choose well in this season. May we all choose joy and peace and may we choose quality over quantity, meaning over mania, people over pressure and relationships over rushing.
Until next time, blessings to you and yours,
xx, Ruthie
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. ~ Matthew 5:9
How wonderful it is, how pleasant, for God's people to live together in harmony. ~ Psalm 133:1
