Christmas Encourages Us
-Luke 1:38
The season of Christmas can be a time of depression and stress. We have taken the season of Christmas and we have created all of these expectations around the celebration of the holiday. We expect to give and receive gifts. We expect family to be with us and supportive of us during the Christmas season. We expect our lives to be happy and full of good cheer. We expect our problems to be solved and all to be set right during the yuletide season.
Because of the many expectations that we have around the celebration of Christmas, we can easily become discouraged when our vision of the perfect Christmas does not become a
reality. Maybe we don’t get to visit family for Christmas. Maybe we don’t have the money to buy gifts or we go into debt buying them anyway which brings its own set of problems. Maybe for various reasons we end up depressed at this time of year instead of happy and cheerful. And it always seems that unexpected problems seem to crop up and put a damper on the season.
Instead of focusing on what the season of Christmas is really about, we create all of these unrealistic expectations that cause us to be disappointed and discouraged when our ideal
image of the perfect Christmas does not become a reality.
Christmas can be a very encouraging time but we must learn how to focus on and receive the encouragement that Christmas has to offer.
