Twas 2 Nights After Halloween

It's late.  The house is quiet.  The kids have all finally faded off to Dream Land.  Grandma has settled.  The men folk are away at the youth retreat and even Mindy is snoring at my feet. 

I like a quiet house.  A Lot.  It gives me time to think.  To ponder.  To plan.  To be.  Ahhh.....Add a cup of Orange Spice Tea and it really is quiet nice. 

I've been planning Christmas.  The shopping list.  The budget.  The gifts.  The parties.  The memories.  The food.  I love planning. 

This is the plan.  Do less.  Be more.  Buy less. Give more.   Decorate less.  Serve more.  Acquire less.  Require more.

That is it.

I really do want to light up my little section of the universe for Jesus. 

I don't want to be weird, but  I do want to be different.

Sometimes life can seem so pointless and busy and empty.
I want it to be on purpose and have space to savor moments and for it to be full.  Really. Really full.

I think when we live how God intends it becomes fuller.
In the giving and the serving and the being and the loving there is purpose.  There is meaning.  There is fullness. 

We get to be his hands. 

So this Christmas season I know it will get all hectic and I know I will get busy and I know it will fly by in a whir of fun activities and parties and good food and sweet family and friends....but I'm planning now....

I want to give gifts to people who need them.  The thirsty.  There are people in the world without access to clean water.  Unbelievable.  The hungry.  With growling stomachs, hungry.  The lonely. 

I want to spend time with people I love.  Family and friends.  Ones who will miss me one day.  Ones I will miss.

 I want to mourn the ones lost this past year and celebrate the ones still here.  Yet rest in the comfort that this loss is for a season.  We will spend eternity together. 

I want to light up dark places because Jesus lit up the dark of my life.  He rescued me from darkness. He still rescues me from my sinfulness.   He is the bright star of Christmas.  Shining.  I do NOT want to glorify myself....but to glorify HIM!  He is worth celebrating.

I want to teach my children.  To love others.  To give to the poor.  To serve.  To live for a purpose.  To follow Christ.  Yet I'm so much better at teaching them to fight for their own rights.  To want things.  To chill.  To be passive.  Oh....I want to do better.  Change me Lord. 

I do want to give my kids good gifts too.  What parent doesn't?  I just want more then that.   I just want this Christmas to be different.  Better.  Holier.