Prepare Your Heart for a Great Christmas helps remind us to be grateful everyday for the beauty around us.  Children know how to do this instinctively!
Last Friday night we took a break from holiday preparations and cuddled on the couch with our youngest daughter.  With her head on my lap and her feet on her dad’s, she was the picture of contentment. 
As she gazed at our Christmas tree, she sighed, “Sometimes, I just want to hug the tree.  It is so beautiful!” 
The warmth and love I felt in that moment has carried me for several days now.  I am so grateful for daughters and the delightful Christmas Moments we’ve shared this season.

In Prepare Your Heart for a Great Christmas we read:

What are the miracles you’ve experienced in your life?  How did they change you?  Is your heart open for a miracle this season?

My husband and I are reviewing the miracles in our life together lately, and just last night committed to ramping up our gratitude practice by sharing our individual lists every evening.  We’re facing a lot of unknowns this season, and by expressing gratitude for the blessings we have received we’ll be more open to the miracles that are undoubtedly on the way.  You see, we’ve experienced miracles before, so we trust that they’ll continue our way.  We don’t know how it will all work out, but we know it will.  That, for now, is enough.

As we finished trimming the tree this weekend, it reminded me of last year’s delightful surprise when my then-7-year-old daughter took it upon herself to decorate our tree.  (Praying Big, December 2007)

Today’s scripture reminds us:

Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.  Mark 10:15

It’s almost a cliche to say the Christmas season is for children.  I’d like to say this season is for the child in all of us–the sense of wonder and delight at the richness of life, and the ability to live in the present moment without distraction or preoccupation.  The children around us are a great reminder to live life this way.  If you encounter a child today, do your best not to brush past them on to the next “important task.”  Praise God for their blessed reminder to draw closer to God’s kingdom by living life with the delight of a child.

Today we’re taking out the rest of the decorations and getting the Christmas tree up in the living room.  If I think of how much there is to do, I just get tired!  So, I’m taking it one task at a time and remaining reasonably calm!

I’m grateful today for Christmas music, my daughter’s joy and the health that I trust is returning to my husband who’s down with the cold and sore throat the girls had last week.  I’m also grateful for the delightful party we attended last night that helped lift me out of a serious funk. 

Please pray for Steve’s mom who’s back in the hospital battling cancer.  This is the second holiday season in a row that she’s been hospitalized.  We lift her up and pray for healing and strength.

In Prepare Your Heart for a Great Christmas we read today:

There’s an empty bucket in each of us.  Blaise Pascal called it a “God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator.”

This season, my family’s bucket is bigger than ever.  We have multiple concerns in nearly every area of our lives: financial, physical, emotional.  We’re surrendering to circumstances we cannot control.  The emptiness left by this surrender will be filled by God the creator.  We trust.  We wait.  On our front door is a sign I purchased last year:  This House Believes.  Little did I know how important that message would be for us this year.

To listent to the full text of today’s reflection from Prepare Your Heart for a Great Christmas, scroll down the left side of the page for a green box with today’s podcast.  You can also find past podcasts by clicking on “posts” in the green box. 

Today I am grateful for The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah and for the Parkway North High School Combined Choirs and Orchestra who performed it last evening.  It was gorgeous and thrilling!  It is their tradition that the director, Brian Reeves, invites the audience to participate. 

As this is Abby’s freshman year, this was a surprise invitation.  Steve jumped up to participate, and with a bit of prompting I followed suit.  Soon, there were 3 of my four family members–Abby in the soprano section, Steve in tenor and I in alto–lifting our hearts to our omnipotent God.  Steve and I used to sing in our parish choir, and last participated in the Chorus when Abby was just a baby. 

Praise God for this unexpected Christmas Moment!  With all we have going on in our lives, I needed the reminder that “The Lord God, omnipotent, reigneth.”  God is in charge.  And, the soaring music did indeed lift my heart and officially ensconce me in the “Christmas Spirit.”  Hallelujah!

Today in Prepare Your Heart for a Great Christmas, we read:

Giving is great exercise.  It stretches and opens our rigid selves to new experiences and possibilities.  From networking meetings to soup kitchens, we are all part of a circle of goodness far greater than any we could quantify.  Thus, it really isn’t about the size of our gift, it’s about giving, period.

Today I am grateful for:

• God, who is bigger than all our concerns;
• My girls and their returning health;
• Dear friends;
• Music.

Have a great day!

Some people I talk with are surprised when I tell them I’m “blogging the book” along with my readers.  I think they assume that when a book is written, the author has mastered the information and lessons in the book.

Not for this author!  Richard Bach has said we teach that which we most need to learn, and this is certainly true in my case!  So I am reading and working the book again this year, open to the new insights that God has in store for me.

Today is a great example of one of God’s blessed surprises for me!  The story of Zechariah and how his faith was challenged by the angel’s message speaks to my life right now.  These last few days I’ve been disappointed that some situations haven’t gone as I planned.  I thought I was doing everything “right,” but the outcome didn’t match what I had in mind.  Like Zechariah, I’ve been stuck thinking that since things didn’t go the way I’d planned, I’ve been nearly “convinced that it simply couldn’t be done.” 

My own words remind me that “turning dreams into reality is God’s work, though.  When we ask God for something, we need to let go of the outcome and trust that our prayers will be answered in the way that is best for us.”

Today I am grateful for this gentle reminder that God is infinitely creative and generous and will not be outdone in either!

Today’s dose of gratitude:

• for my husband and daughters;
• for our warm home;
• for the dear friends we’ll have dinner with tonight;
• for this season that reminds me there are new possibilities out there, not only the ones I dream up on my own.

Today my intention is to spend uninterrupted time with my girls.

Have a great day, everyone!

 Dear Readers:

I am “blogging the book” along with you.  My daily blog postings are my musings this year as I prepare my heart for a great Christmas.

Today my intention is to approach my projects with a spirit of enthusiasm and not let their scope or details discourage me.

I hope you have a great day!