What a Mom Needs Most for Christmas

Hey, mom. Want to play calendar bingo? It’s December. So practically every mom in America with children ages 0 on up is drowning in the same tasks and agenda items. Let’s see who can check them off first:

• Gift shopping

• Cookie exchange

• Teacher luncheon

• Piano recital

• Christmas play

• Staff party

• Christmas card photo shoot (What?! You haven’t done that yet??)

• Christmas light tour

• White elephant gift exchange

• Band concert

• Santa parade

• School party volunteer

• Gift wrapping day

• Christmas movie night

• Stocking stuffer shopping run

• Baking, baking, baking

• {Free square—fill in your event of choice}

Am I missing anything?

Ugh. No wonder we’re pooped.

This Christmas season, before the calendar takes over my life, I am determined to make room for one activity above all others:

Rest in Jesus.

“And Mary said, ‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.’” (Luke 1:46–47)

How can a momma’s soul glorify the Lord if she’s too preoccupied to toss Him a nod? How can a weary spirit rejoice if it’s depleted, bogged down in piles of shirt boxes and Scotch tape? And how can we replenish our energy, our adoration, and our witness—if we’re not plugged into the one true source of fuel for our souls?

Resting in Jesus is not another to-do on the list. It’s a lifestyle. A conscious choice day after day to look up and remember where our help comes from. It looks like prayer, even in the midst of busyness. It’s found in our attitude—our willingness to appreciate those December obligations as signs of family life, which is a blessing, not a burden. And it’s a daily surrender to God’s agenda, even when it’s different from our own.

Because Christmas season in a mom’s world also means colds and flu, sick days, unexpected trips to urgent care and the after-hours pharmacy. It means snow days, dead car batteries, cancelled babysitters and cabin fever. Between our to-do’s and our interruptions, our wishes and our wants, a woman could go all out crazy without a True North to orient and guide her.

Praise Jesus He is that and so much more. In this bingo game of December mom life, our Savior is not just the center square; He’s the entire board.

And that means we cannot lose.

Blessings,
Becky