Maybe November and December are your two favorite months of the year.
Perhaps preparing for, living through, and cleaning up after the holidays don’t phase you in the least.
You may have your Christmas shopping all done, your cards ready to mail, and your menus completely planned.
If these are true for you, then The PURSE-onality Challenge “A Holiday-Ready Heart” is not designed for you. (But please join us anyhow and give us your best advice!)
However, if you…
- dread dragging out the holiday decorations…
- wonder how what should be “the best of times” all too often often ends up being “the worst of times”…
- wish you could hibernate from October 30 ’til January 1…
- become overwhelmed by the commercialized chaos that tries to overtake your life in December…
- cringe just thinking about spending yet another holiday with certain people…
- feel like a failure because you never seem able to do everything “just right” for the holidays…
- have an over-full calendar already (and the invitations haven’t even started coming!)
- wonder how on earth you’re going to afford everything this season…
- miss loved ones more than ever during the holidays…
- want to focus on the real reason for the season…
…then I hope you’ll join us in October for “A Holiday-Ready Heart“: 31 days of intentionally pray-paring for the most peace-full, joyous, family-focused, meaning-filled holy-days we can possibly have!
For some, this may take just a slight tweak. For others, this will require a serious overhaul of how we approach the holidays in our hearts.
Each day during October, we’ll examine an issue that often triggers holiday “baditude.” We’ll discuss how to maximize our own purse-onality strengths and intentionally meet the purse-onality needs of those we love. And we’ll plan ahead to be already meditating on God’s word and gratitude when the holidays roll around this year!
Join us for “A Holiday-Ready Heart” if you…
…want to do more than just “go through the motions” this season.
…long to focus on the true Reason for the season!
…desire peace on earth and goodwill toward others this Christmas!
Check out our website and Facebook page for the nitty-gritty details!
You’ll also find four free PURSE-onality audio messages:
- Let’s Get PURSE-onal!
- De-LIGHT-full Giving in a Weighty World
- Personality Puzzle for Parents of Preschoolers
- Healthy Marriages Major in History (NOT Math!)
plus a free e-Book: Top 10 Priceless Gifts that Don’t Cost a Dime for Each PURSE-onality!
This is a sponsored post.
Cheri Gregory has been married to her pastor/teacher/musician college sweetheart, Daniel, for 24 years. The Gregorys are enjoying their newly “re-emptied nest” now that Jonathon (19) and Annemarie (21) are back in college. Cheri is a high school English teacher and Christian speaker/author. Connect with her via Facebook, [email protected], and www.CheriGregory.com.
Sheila Wray Gregoire has been married for 25 years and happily married for 20! She loves traveling around North America with her hubby in their RV, giving her signature "Girl Talk" about sex and marriage. And she's written 8 books. About sex and marriage. See a theme here? Plus she knits. Even in line at the grocery store.
Thank you so much for posting this!!!!! I have been dreading everything about Christmas and look forward to the change in attitude. I would prefer to enjoy it!
So glad! Hope you find it really helpful!
I’m not a fan of the holidays for more than one reason.
First of all, I have an anxiety disorder that is set off by stress, MOST ESPECIALLY social situations where I don’t have a way to escape. For example, a family gathering, or a busy day at work, or a party, or a church event, or really any social or work situation or obligation that involves more than a small handful of people that I’m close to. Last Christmas season, I had multiple panic attacks, and Christmas day I threw up five times simply from anxiety. I wasn’t sick, I didn’t have anything to drink – I was just stressed out.
Second, the alleged histories of Thanksgiving and Christmas that we’re force-fed from childhood are all absolute lies. The history of Christmas….well, read this: http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm
Pretty horrible, right? It’s not Jesus’ birthday, and it honestly has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus. Its entire history until very recently was horrific, inhumane, depraved, and completely pagan – actually, early Americans didn’t celebrate Christmas at all, and in many places in America it was illegal to celebrate until later on – and now it’s simply a materialistic money-making scheme of advertisers and corporations.
And Thanksgiving – kids are taught about a friendship between the white man and the Native Americans. What?? We came over here uninvited (these days here in the U.S. we call it “illegal immigration”), stole their land, herded them into reservations like cattle, forced them to learn our language…..
Yes, I’m not a big fan of the holidays. You may say that those holidays don’t mean now what they meant back then. Well, as an example I saw online, if there were a holiday celebrating Hitler’s birthday, and for centuries it was celebrated by cruelly torturing and murdering Jews, then one day someone put a red suit and silly hat on a picture of Hitler and started a story that he handed out gifts to children, and made up a story about how it had something to do with God – would it be right to celebrate that holiday? We don’t celebrate September 11th with cheering, gift-giving, and jolly singing and parties. It would be an insult to the victims of that day to do so.
Yes….a soapbox, indeed.
This sounds great! Over the past few years I’ve been working on my attitude toward the holidays. When my husband and I first got married I came to dread the holidays because there was inevitably drama over whose house we were going to, arguments over money, and me being exhausted by it all. But we’ve made a ton of progress. We’re at a pretty good place by there’s always room for improvement! 🙂
I realize Christmas has a pretty shaky past and i have my own issues with the holiday, but I must defend the Pilgrims. They did, in fact, have a great relationship with the Indians. They did not herd the Indians up and force anything on them. They worked cooperatively with the Indians. It was different settlers that did horrible damage to the relationship with the Indians, not the Pilgrims. Thanksgiving Day does celebrate something genuinely good.
Christopher Columbus called the Native Americans “Indians” because he thought he had landed in India. However, he did not land in India, so they’re actually not Indians. Although, technically each tribe had a different name, and so “Native American” is a general term that doesn’t necessarily cover the individuality of history and culture.
Hm, the history of Thanksgiving. In 1614, a group of English captured a bunch of Patuxet and took them back to England to be slaves. Before they left, however, they left an outbreak of smallpox among the Patuxet who had escaped capture. When the Pilgrims arrived, they found Squanto, the only Patuxet left alive, who knew English because he had been a slave to the English. Although he had once been a slave to their people, he still taught them how to survive on the land and helped them achieve a treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags (a treaty that was not recognized by other tribes, mind you), and the Pilgrims did indeed throw a celebration after that first year. However, that set off a bad chain of events, because when others in England heard about the “promised land” and how wonderful things were, they flocked on over and stole the land from the Native Americans, and engaged in a fury of enslavement and slaughter.
So there’s a little feel-good bit in there, I suppose, but for the most part it’s not such a great history.
And Jenny, I read your link and then went to other articles on that site. The site claims that Jesus is not the Messiah, listing all kinds of “proof”. This definitely makes me wonder how true their story of Christmas could be. I know Christmas has a murky past, not very clear how pagan and “Christian” (I say that because I don’t consider people who commit unthinkable acts in the name of religion Christians) traditions came to be together. There are a lot of stories and a lot of confusion and conjecture. What’s clear is that Christmas was not celebrated in the Bible. That’s about all that is clear with Christmas’s history. A site that claims that Jesus is not the Messiah is not a trustworthy historical site.
There are a lot of trustworthy historians who are not Christians. I believe in Christ, that He is the Son of God, but you can have a great knowledge of history even if you’re not a Christian. It’s kind of silly to say that an article about history can’t possibly be factual just because the author isn’t a Christian.
I didn’t learn about the history of Christmas from that website. I learned about it in one of the six history classes I took within the first two years of attending a Christian college.
I guess here’s what I’d say about Christmas: Jesus’ birth is definitely worth celebrating! I think it’s wonderful to have a day of the year every year when we remember that Jesus came as a baby, and then another day (Easter) when we remember that He rose from the dead. That way we’re remembering, on a yearly basis, both His humanity and His divinity.
After all, we celebrate other people’s birthdays, and I think celebrating His is great, too!
I do think that they chose a pagan holiday to celebrate Christmas, but I don’t see what’s wrong with that, either. It’s like the Bible society in France buying up Voltaire’s house (he was an avowed atheist) and then using it to print Bibles in. That’s awesome. So you take something that was at one time dedicated totally against God, and you redeem it. That sounds very Christian to me–to redeem that which was once lost.
So I’m not really concerned about what people USED to do on Christmas. I just think it’s wonderful that once a year we remember anew that Jesus came in the flesh. Certainly we know that already, but if there weren’t a holiday, I think it would lose its importance. The fact that we remember is important.
And let’s not forget that in the Old Testament they had a ton of festivals to remember important things.
So that’s where I stand. I think Christmas has become far too commercial, but we don’t have to give in to that. We can still have a holy time as a family, reading the Scripture, singing carols, praying, and enjoying a wonderful time together. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that at all, and just because pagans celebrated on the same day centuries ago in horrid ways should not take away our chance to celebrate today.
You can’t really live in the world without participating in some sort of celebration, and Mars isn’t quite ready for habitation yet, so it is best to try to see some good in it. 😉 I’m hoping to be able to volunteer at the homeless shelter this holiday season – so, rather than having the holidays be simply about gifts or empty words about God, I’ll be showing God’s love to people in need. If we want to celebrate Jesus’ birth, or more importantly his life – it’s not really a true celebration if we’re only paying lip service. The white sepulchers, right? All words, no actions. So going to church is nice, singing carols is ok, but if you really want to celebrate Jesus – go out into the world, right?
Great attitude, Jenny! Definitely go out into the world. My mom every Christmas goes up to the “international Christmas” that’s for international students at a university close to where I live. They often have no idea what Christmas is, and no where else to go. And they get to learn about Christmas, and also do “Canadian” things like toboggan and skate for the first time. It’s a great way to share the holidays! We’ll probably join her this year, too.
That sounds like fun!
The homeless shelter here is going to be serving 58,274 homeless, hungry, and hurting people this Thanksgiving. It’s staggering. We don’t even live in a huge metropolitan area. The economy is just so bad right now. My husband and I don’t have much – actually, I’m not sure where we’re going to come up with grocery money this week, and our food is running low – but, we have a roof over our head and electricity and water, and we always have something to eat, even if it’s just beans, or eggs, or oatmeal. We only have one car that we share, but we have a car to get to work – and we have work to go to. My heart hurts so much for those who have nothing. We like to do Operation Christmas Child, too.
So yes, there are good ways to celebrate those holidays. 🙂
I think whenever we help people and share what we do have, the jar of oil and flour never run out (like the Old Testament story!)
That’s so true.
Sheila, were you the one who posted something about how you talk through ideas, whereas some other people don’t say anything until they’ve thought out all the details exactly? lol. I believe that I commented on that post, mentioning that I talk through ideas in the process of developing my opinions, as well. 😉
Yes! That was one of my favourite columns. I think it’s this one: Storming the Castle.
Denouncing Thanksgiving and implying that the Pilgrims treated the original people’s poorly based on the fact that other settlers were not/ did not act like Christians and did unspeakable things is a disservice to history and to the Pilgrims. Thanksgiving is not just a “feel good bit”, it recognizes God as the central figure in the celebration and allows the Pilgrims to recognize the original people as the kind and benevolent neighbors they were (I understand why we called the people who were here before us “Indians”, and it also has nothing to do wih the Pilgrims. I was a history major and also attend a Christian college).
A site that is anti-Jesus in the first place is not a reliable source to use when one wants an unbiased history about Christmas–a history that is filled with questions. Not every historian has to be a Christian to be trustworthy, but this site has a clear agenda, which for me, puts it in the category of having a conflict of interest.
I guess I’m still at a loss as to what’s wrong with celebrating Thanksgiving anyway? I mean, shouldn’t we be taking a day a year and thanking God for the harvest and for His provision for us? They definitely did that in the Old Testament. Taking a time once a year specifically to thank God is a wonderful tradition, and it helps ingrain in our kids’ minds and hearts the need to be thankful, too.
As for the roots of the current holiday, I know there is controversy. But quite frankly, I’m not bothered by that. I think it’s CRUCIAL to have a day to be thankful, just like it’s CRUCIAL to have a day to recognize Jesus’ birth.
Having specific festivals or ceremonies of remembrance is a part of faith. The Israelites had it. And Jesus instituted a new one: communion. We remember when we do something specific to remember. And we must remember to be grateful.
And no matter what the origins (and I personally feel that you can’t paint the 1600s with one brush. There was some good, and some bad, and it’s wrong to dismiss them all as evil just as it’s wrong to ignore anything good that they did), it’s still important to be thankful! If people don’t want to remember the Pilgrims, they don’t have to. But I think all of that is a red herring, because the truth is that God wants us to be thankful, and having a day a year when we specifically do that simply pulls us back to Him. And I think that’s a good thing.
Oh, I should say, too, though, that I totally understand the STRESS of holidays, especially if you do them big. Saying that I think we should celebrate them in no way means that I think we should all cook a 6-course dinner. You can celebrate Thanksgiving by going for a picnic and a hike, if you want! It doesn’t matter what you do; but having a day specifically when we are thankful sets the stage for the rest of the year.
I guess my thoughts are basically that we shouldn’t ignore history. I agree that it’s important to be thankful, and it’s important to celebrate Jesus’ life. But we don’t forget the Holocaust, we don’t forget September 11th, and we shouldn’t forget the atrocities that comprised the beginnings of this very flawed nation.
Well, Jenny, I’m not American. But I can tell you that as someone who isn’t, I firmly believe that while America may be flawed, it is also the best country on earth (with the exception perhaps of my own 🙂 ) when you look at its history of advancing freedom and standing up for fundamental freedoms. It really is the city on a hill. Is it perfect? Nope. But nothing can be apart from God anyway. And I, for one, am very glad that America is there, and that America has paved the way for people to understand freedom worldwide.
I think sometimes there is too much propensity to see the bad, and not enough to acknowledge the good. Do not let the perfect become an enemy of the good. If you’re looking for perfect, and dismissing everything because it’s not perfect, then you fail to stand up for the good. And the good matters. The Declaration of Independence matters. It was a brilliant document, and it set the stage for so much GOOD throughout the world. Were those who wrote it flawed? Yep. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s an amazing document. And I am very grateful for it, and for a nation trying to encapsulate the freedoms that we did receive from God into government form.
Honestly, living here, witnessing our disgusting, perverted culture, being bombarded by the shameless and harmful marketing techniques used in ads (we Americans are only a small fraction of the world’s population, but we are subjected to 40% of the world’s advertising), seeing the very scantily-clad GIRLS and women who are lurking around no matter where you go; then hearing a constant refrain of bigotry, vulgarity, arrogance, ignorance, outright lies and propaganda; witnessing the corruption of every politician in office; seeing the corruption of corporations and industries that would rather torture animals and poison humans than pay a few extra bucks for quality – even using hundreds of toxins that are illegal to use in other western countries – and then bribing politicians in order to keep any opposition from doing any good…..speaking of, the pervasiveness of greed….
It’s extremely hard to see any good. Yes, we have a free nation, but we aren’t the only free nation, and honestly we as a people are so corrupt, arrogant, bigoted, and perverse that I can’t feel any sort of pride in being American.
I’d just like to give my two cents on the Christmas/Thanksgiving debate. I believe that there are excellent points on each side. I personally LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas and enjoy Thanksgiving as well! I’m one of those people that gets excited by the sights, smells, and sounds of the holidays (I know, kinda cheesy, right?) LOL
But I do understand Jenny’s point about acknowledging the atrocities committed against groups of people. Im a teacher, and I cringe at the misinformation that is so often presented to our children. I also cringe when I hear people teach their children or students about Thanksgiving with the assumption that everything was a big happy picnic. The reality is that it wasn’t, and we can’t put blankets on groups of people to say that all of the Pilgrims treated the Native Americans nicely or badly, because neither is true. I think simply using our common sense and knowledge about how people operate would make it clear that there was some tension and mistreatment in the midst of it all (to say the least).
But then I also think that in the end, we should look forward past all of the negativity and move forward without bitterness b/c bitterness is not of God. So, I do celebrate Thanksgiving with my children, and we are thankful to live in such a blessed country. But, I do pay respect to those who were hurt, mistreated, and are often overlooked. I teach my children about what they went through so that they can sympathize with them. We then talk about why it is important not to repeat this sort of history. Lastly, I end by reminding them that at some point, we’ve all played a role in injustice, and that it’s important to point out how God works even bad things to our good. So, it ends on a positive, refreshing note without disregarding the unfortunate victims. As Jenny said, it is okay to acknowledge and remember victims (we do it on September 11 and we also remember Holocaust victims). I personally think that some tend to conveniently forget atrocities committed against certain minority groups because it makes us uncomfortable, but I digress…..
With all that said, I agree with Sheila in that, we can still move forward positively and be able to enjoy the holidays if we choose to. I can understand why some people choose not to, but I choose to enjoy them AND be honest about the history. I think doing so teaches our kids a better lesson than ignoring the history altogether or being bitter about it. I guess this was a LONG way of saying that balance is good!
I think that praying during this holiday season is great. I haven’t been overly excited about the holidays because we’ve been going through so much transition, but if I stop to think about what’s left: family, life, salvation, my marriage, my attitude could be a little better. I believe intentionally praying in this area can help me to have a change of heart and thus a better holiday season with it focused on Christ as the center–the way it should be. Thanks for the post! 🙂
Denouncing Thanksgiving and implying that the Pilgrims treated the original people’s poorly based on the fact that other settlers were not/ did not act like Christians and did unspeakable things is a disservice to history and to the Pilgrims. Thanksgiving is not just a “feel good bit”, it recognizes God as the central figure in the celebration and allows the Pilgrims to recognize the original people as the kind and benevolent neighbors they were (I understand why we called the people who were here before us “Indians”, and it also has nothing to do wih the Pilgrims. I was a history major and also attend a Christian college).
A site that is anti-Jesus in the first place is not a reliable source to use when one wants an unbiased history about Christmas–a history that is filled with questions. Not every historian has to be a Christian to be trustworthy, but this site has a clear agenda, which for me, puts it in the category of having a conflict of interest. It’s not that one cannot use it as a starting point and verify with (many) other sources, but red flags are raised for me when someone who doesn’t even recognize Jesus as who he is claims to be an expert on celebrations that claim to be about Jesus.
Sorry about the double post. I wasn’t done when the first one posted.
I guess I’m a little on the other side of things. I love, love, love Christmas. When we moved across country last Christmas and stayed with my in-laws (and therefore I had no place of my own to decorate) I went out and bought a slew of Christmas lights and decorated their house. Fortunately my FIL is of the same mind so they were cool with it 🙂 In fact, I’m probably going to sneak over there again this Christmas while everyone is gone so that I can decorate their house again 😉 I draw the line at animated santas, but I do love me some Christmas lights. I’m already pricing them at Costco and such.
I’m not typically super organized, but I sort of plan for Christmas year round. Any time of year is a great time to buy Christmas presents (on sale!). Nothing goes up before the first Sunday of Advent (gives me a breather between Christmas and Thanksgiving) and everything stays up until Epiphany (celebrating the actual 12 days of Christmas gives me more time to relax and enjoy things after the mad dash of decorating and gift wrapping is over).
I’ve found that buying Christmas presents throughout the year really reduces my stress at Christmas, too!
Amen, Sheila. Thank you for saying good things about our country.
Jenny, I am sorry for you that you can’t see any good in being an American. Can I ask you to find a perfect country? What country in this world is not full of corruption and bigotry? It is the way of the world, not just the way of Americans. God told us that in the end times peoples’ love would grow cold and they would be disrespectful, God-hating and selfish. I don’t recall God singling America out for these horrible sins. Humanity on the whole is increasingly prone to committing atrocities. I would ask you to find a country that has been more used of God to advance the cause of freedom and the gospel in the world. I would also ask if you have thought of moving to another country if America is that bad to live in? I would wonder if you could find a more free and God- fearing society elsewhere? Or if maybe a better approach is to try to change America for the better and not to just give her over to Satan’s care? I remember Abraham’s plea with God to save Sodom. God was willing to listen. Why can’t we do this for our country? In Philippians Paul tells us to think on the things that are pure, true, lovely, just, and of good report. That tells me that I can acknowledge America’s history ( which isn’t all bad) AND concentrate in the good things about this country. Acting like there is nothing good about America is ignoring history too, and it’s certainly not concentrating on things that are lovely and of good report.
Believe me, we’ve thought about moving. 🙂 It’s kind of hilarious actually that you ask that question….typical. lol. Yes, we’ve dreamed about moving, but we’re rather poor, and moving takes money and a job guarantee wherever you’re going. Also, we increasingly feel that God wants us to minister to those in need where we are.
In reality, humanity is not increasingly prone to committing atrocities. Humans have been committing horrific atrocities from the beginning of time.
Well, I will say this for America, we have a lot of great thinkers, scientists, researchers, etc. There are so many incredible things that I read about on the National Geographic and PBS websites. Slowly we’re embracing equality – although many Americans are kicking and screaming about it, as they have from the beginning.
And my question is typical how? I was genuinely wondering if you had looked around the world and compared America’s sins and history with those of other countries?
I too feel very drawn to doing something bigger. To traveling around the world helping missionaries, and getting way from the materialism of western countries at large. I don’t think I’m going to find other countries whose governments are less corrupt, whose people are less sinful, and whose societies are less prone to treating certain groups as “less than”. Such is the way of the human heart.
And while I agree with you that people have been committing horrible things against each other from the beginning (ancient history is full of horrific acts) the Bible does, in fact, say that things will get worse as the end nears.
Oh yes, people are the same the world over, and (with exceptions, insofar as freedom goes) no one country is better than the other. I guess one point I was trying to make is that America’s excesses – involving lust, gluttony, greed, and prejudice – are amplified compared to many other countries, most likely due to the pervasiveness of media and marketing that influences us in an exceedingly harmful way.
I agree that it seems as though our problems are amplified because of the ever present media and advertising. I just think that’s a symptom, though, and that any society that is poor now would suffer from the same ills as America does (lust of the flesh type stuff) if they were to become a rich superpower tomorrow, because the common factor is the depraved human heart. There is so much prejudice around the world, so much so that ethnic cleansing is a regular occurrence between tribes in traditional cultures. Religious prejudice causes people to kill in the name of some god. Human rights violations are common in the world. The common thread is not money or possessions (money is not the root of evil, it’s he love of it that is), it’s humanity. We mess up the blessings God gives us with our universal heart problems. Because of this, sin is everywhere.
This is very true.
Oh boy, Sheila! That used to describe me SO well. I’m not really all that outgoing, but I do talk out my opinions (sometimes to myself! Lol). I am a black and white thinker, but also very analytical so I do tend to think things out ad nauseum. When I was younger I would just pop off with an opinion, many times thinking “of course logical people agree with me!”, when many times that was not the case, or not the only “right” way to see things. My husband and I do tend to butt heads because he is not a talker and I can be, especially on things I am passionate about.
I love Christmas. I mean, really love Christmas. Decorations come out of storage while I am handing out candy on Hallowe’en and then get put up the next day. I used to really stress about everything but that was before, “I went looking for ideals outside of myself” (a little Anne Shirley for us Canadians 🙂 )When I finally realized that not having the nicest and fanciest decorations or being able to give the most extravagant gifts was NOT going to help our family celebrate better, the holidays became something I began to love. Now, my kids and I go hunting for greenery and pine cones to put around our house – smells great!- and we regularly go carolling around our neighbourhood when it is snowing. We throw ourselves into the pagent at church so we can praise Jesus in a special way and have something beautiful to invite friends and family to.
I don’t care about the holiday’s history. I really don’t. What I do care about is celebrating the birth of the most important person in history and sharing that experience with my husband and kids.
Oh, I love Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea, and all of the other books!!!