Spiritually Preparing for a More Simple Christmas

Back in the day...in the year of our Lord 2012, I wrote a post on my desire to have a more minimalistic Christmas.  It was a quest of mine last year, and you know what?  I think I was successful!  It was a goal in the forefront of my mind, and it was mission accomplished.

I shared my secrets recently to a group of women.  I had a fancy presentation with a powerpoint and everything.  Who knew my hidden talent was public speaking, but when you are sharing something you are passionate about, it isn't too hard...I'd like to share a few suggestions on finding the spirit in a more Simple Christmas that I shared with this group of women...

• Have a Christmas Advent Devotional every morning or evening around the Christmas tree leading up to Christmas
• The Book of Luke has exactly 24 chapters.  God's perfect advent...read a chapter a day about Christ's life right up to Christmas Eve.
• Watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional
• Attend Church services and/or the Temple to partake of the Spirit

"Nothing you buy will make you a better person. 

 Nothing you give will make someone love you more. 

 Spending won't make you happier."

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• Minimize Christmas gifts.  For example, Santa Brings three gifts to symbolized the three gifts brought by the Wise men.
• Make homemade Christmas gifts

• Make homemade Christmas goodies...keep half for "sampling" and half to your neighbors
• Minimize Christmas decorating.  Only put out the most heartfelt decorations with memories attached.  This helps to cut down on stress, too.

Engage your senses

• Christmas scented candles:  Cinnamon, peppermint, pine
• Play Christmas music during the day
• Watch Christmas movies...ABC Family has a 25 Days of Christmas series for Children.  I also love the Lifetime and Hallmark channel Christmas movies.

• Go out for a yummy hot chocolate...or make a hot chocolate bar in your home with all the sweet fixings
• Attend a Christmas music concert.  School choir and band concerts are usually free.
• Go for a drive and look at Christmas lights
• Create a Christmas journal, sometimes referred to as a December daily.  I made mine from old Christmas Cards.  It was very simple.  Document your thoughts and daily ideas on how you are creating a more simple, spirit filled Christmas.  Focusing on gratitude, too.

Concentrate on keeping your stress levels down. 

 The spirit can't dwell in a stressed out vessel.

• Exercise, exercise, exercise - Now is not the time to stop taking care of your body.  Exercise releases naturally occurring endorphins which make you happy and therefore, less stressed.
• Go for a walk in the snow
• Prepare simple healthy meals

Make Christmas an Experience

I once listened to a talk where the man related how one year they were debating whether to renovate a bathroom or take a family trip.  Years later, their grown kids still talk about that family trip.  He didn't think that gathered around the Thanksgiving table their children would have recounted the stories of a bathroom renovation and that awesome toilet.

Last year we had the opportunity to go on a trip right before Christmas.  I was reluctant, because I am a nester and homebody, especially at Christmas.  But, we decided that this would be our gift for Christmas...an experience.  My kids don't remember the trinket gifts we gave, but they do remember the trip.  I'm not saying you have to go on a trip for Christmas, but try to create an experience that your kids might remember.

• Attend a Christmas craft fair
• call a loved one far away
• Read a Christmas book
• Make some crafty Christmas decorations
• Go to a tree lighting
• Go on a sleigh ride
• Play in the snow
• Attend a Christmas carol sing a long
• Walk around the mall and look at all the decorations and busy shoppers and savor the simplicity of the experience you are creating for yourself and your family.

Try to create family friendly time...nothing is a 'have to'.  

Do not set up unrealistic expectations.  

Quit comparing yourself to everyone else.  

Get lots of rest and remember:  

Christ is the true reason for the season.  

***This is one of my favorite Christmas posts.  It originally posted 12/4/2013***

Sacred Sundays

"Temple. 

One other word
 is equal in importance 

to a Latter-day Saint. 

Home. 

Put the words holy temple 
and home together, 

and you have described 
the house of the Lord!"

~Boyd K. Packer~

#He is The Gift #ShareTheGift

I know I have had struggles, but I am reminded what this season is all about.  I'm so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ...I'm grateful for a time of new beginnings and resolutions and do overs and start agains and the love of family and friends.

May you have the Merriest of Christmas' and be blessed and ever mindful of Him.  He is The Gift.

 

Because of Him

I am so grateful to Him for His life, love and sacrifice.  I am grateful and in awe of the miracles that continue to bless lives all over the world including mine.  I know He lives and loves me.  I know Him...

Pressure to be Perfect

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A while back I wrote a post about how I wasn't really great at anything, but I was okay at a lot of things.  There is the inner pressure to be perfect.   I want to be the perfect daughter, wife and mother.  I want to decorate the perfect house, cook the most delicious meals where everyone enjoys them, create the perfect scrapbook, or write the best blog post ever.

That inner desire to be perfect can be debilitating.
I don't know why its there, I'm not even sure where it comes from.

In our various religious organizations we are taught to try to be like Jesus, and He was perfect.

The message that often gets lost on me is that He offers me His grace because I am not perfect nor can I ever be...without Him.

It's a balancing act really...

But by my struggling for perfection and trying to do everything perfectly, I've realized it is like spitting upon my Savior, and I definitely don't want to do that!

Yes, it is good to strive to do your best, but that guilt when I'm not, is where Christ comes in.

His grace makes up that difference...

Even in my mediocre scrapbooks or my severely lacking meals...

Because through His grace and love, He knows the intent of my heart.  He knows that I want to be the best to honor Him, and that is enough.

Through Christ I will always be enough...

How wonderful it will be some day to hear "Well done, thou good and faithful servant...You are enough."

Do you struggle with trying to be perfect and the guilt when you come up lacking?

He Spoke

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Do you ever feel like God is calling you?  Whispering to you from, well, everywhere?  I am hearing and seeing His call everywhere I turn and in everything I read.  I tell you, He is not happy with me.  I almost feel like a chastised child.  My Father is shaking his finger and me, and saying 'NO'.  You see, he heard I wanted to quit blogging, but His message is 'NO'.

I read a couple of things on the internet lately that had me wanting to yell at Him.  "I hear You!!", "I got the message!".

I read an article by Hannah Boning on (in)courage called "When I Sit On the Couch And Am Silent". She said, "Your words matter. Your experience matters. Your story matters. Your thoughts matter. You matter." She said this and I heard Him.

Another time, well the same day actually, I was reading from Chad R. Allen's blog, "The Best Way to Find Time for Your Art." In truth, I had never thought about blogging as my "art", but I am creating and writing so I guess it is art. He basically says, that if you don't do your art, no one will know but you, but in the end you'll be unfulfilled. Pretty smart words, and when he said this, I felt like He was whispering yet again.

While reading Nienie, she impressed the importance of preserving our stories at the RootsTech 2014 conference.  She said on her blog, "I think it is important to keep an account of your family whether you blog, scrapbook, take photos or videos -whatever you do tell your story and don't stop."

Sometimes these witnesses come in twos, sometimes in threes and sometimes as many times as it takes to get it through our thick brains. "I got the message!" "I hear You!" I hang my head in resignation and return to blogging with joy, love and acceptance of His desire for me.




 

Purity and Nature

The trees and bushes are heavy with fog....Pregnant with it....White frost covers their branches  delicate...It is breathtaking...Beautiful...White...Pure...Unblemished...  It's as if nature is preparing.  Getting ready for the coming of the Christ child celebration.  He, in his purity, came to earth for us.  Lived and died for us.  So that we, the impure, may live.

In the hush of the thick fog, the quietness envelopes me.  As I look out my window and soak up the beauty of nature right now, I am grateful for my Savior and His coming.  We are waiting...

Remembering the Savior and {MMB}

A recent article I wrote has posted on MMB today.  Please pop over and read my thoughts on Remembering the Savior this Christmas.

As always your comments and support are most appreciated.  

 

Faith and Miracles

I mentioned earlier this week about the Philippines and the typhoon and helping those in need.  I also briefly mentioned the LDS missionaries that were missing and unaccounted for, for a time.  Since missionaries are near and dear to my mother heart, this news article brought me to tears.  It is filled with Faith, Hope and Miracles.  I hope you enjoy it too,

Have an uplifting Sunday...

Post by Deseret News.

in(RL) Weekend

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I'm breaking my weekend rule of no internet and blogging.  Yet this weekend was (in)courage's online in(RL)  Weekend Conference.  How could I not participate?   What an amazing organization with their spiritual thoughts and uplifting messages.  I'm grateful to know that even though we may not share the same religion, we share the same Faith.  Religion need not be divisive but that Faith in Christ is what should bring us together.  We all believe and worship a loving Savior, and strive to be better sisters, daughters, mothers and wives.  I'm grateful to be a part of such an incredible community and to call these women my Sisters in Christ.

Faith, Food and Shopping

With the afternoon sun overhead, we piled in the Honda, four of us on a journey of faith, food and shopping.  Faith, food and shopping.  A dichotomy, yes?  Yet, in the same weekend all were fulfilled.  We were fed both spiritually and temporally.  You see we were going to Salt Lake City, a Mecca of sorts for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Twice a year, leaders from our faith speak of Christ, his life and how we can embrace Him more fully in what is called General Conference.  We were lucky enough to be in possession of four tickets, otherwise, we would just sit at home and watch it on BYU-TV, which is totally okay with me, too.

Our first stop in reaching the outskirts of Salt Lake was

Because you just can't get them in Idaho.

The next day found us shopping and visiting a different kind of Mecca

Yeah, it was my birthday weekend.  Let me just say that I have never been to IKEA.  I was overwhelmed and in awe as I wandered around that maze of a store.  I could have gone through a second time once I took it all in, but I had two males in tow, and a good woman should know their limits.  

Sunday found us here

and here

How overwhelming it was to be amongst so many fellow Latter Day Saints all filled with the excitement and anticipation to hear the good words about Jesus Christ from these amazing and inspirational men.

Yes, our hearts were full, our belly's were sated 

and my checkbook a little bit lighter.  

When it's better to say nothing

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What does a blogger say after the terrorist event in Boston this past week?  What can we say?  Anything I could have contrived and written in those hours following the event on Monday would have seemed trivial in the wake of the pain and suffering of my fellow  Americans.  Therefore, I chose not to say anything at all for a few days.  My moments of silence, if you will, stretched on for several days.

Wow, senseless, horrific, tragedy, cruel, hateful, devastating, insecurity are all words that come to mind.  As I have pondered these events and the future of our Country, I have found solace in the fact that good people far outweigh the evil people in the world.

Albert Einstein said, "God did not create evil.  Just as darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of God."  Albert...he was a pretty smart guy in more ways than one, wouldn't you say?  I could go on and elaborate, but I find these words quite poignant...it's depths to ponder.

Let me finish with this quote below, and let there be more light.

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2busy Unplugged

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Since I've had such a full month of blogging sharing information about my faith during my 31 Days of Faith series, I am going to be taking some time off.  It may be a week or a month.  I haven't quite decided what I can handle yet.  I will be unplugging from all social media to fully immerse myself in the beauty of the season, enjoying time with family and becoming more fully engaged in all I do.

I will still be posting at Pear Shaped Thoughts on November 5, 13, 21 and 29th....So not completely unplugged.  Please bear with me and stay tuned...So if I don't see you before December, may your November be filled with gratitude for

Family

Football

The beautiful smells of fall

and musical memories