The great thing about the holidays is all the extra energy floating around. Heroic feats of baking, entertaining, shopping and crafting become possible in this short window of time, things that any other time of the year would require a extended loan of energy from who-knows-where-else to accomplish. It's great, except when it isn't.
Emotionally everybody runs on alternating current, we alternate between the positive and the negative. I'm not knocking the negative, because it often brings great insight and needed balance to our lives, but when adult realities bump into childhood's pure joy, it is easy to be pulled into a negative energy vortex. The thing about memories is that they change as we grow. What happened in space time at that particular point doesn't change, but the way we understand what happened does. The happiest moments in our lives collide with our now adult understanding of life, and many people decide they are incompatible. "Christmas is for children," weary grown-ups say.
My key to avoiding those feelings is to focus on the place where I am still a child and always will be a child as far as I know. No, I don't mean my inner child. I mean every part of me that there is, is a child in the House of God. In His House I can have a good cry over my wounds and it is reasonable to expect a band-aid and a kiss. In His House I can rejoice and give praise at whatever level I'm at and know that it will be received for what it truly is. In His House, all my best efforts make the fridge.
Allowing the Holy Spirit to guide and guard can help you celebrate with a child's joy and a grown-up's wisdom.
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