It\u2019s time for those picture-perfect Christmas photos of families in matching pajamas, along with the picture-perfect photos of our impressive Christmas d\u00e9cor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suddenly the comparison doors swing wide open as we try to one-up our friends and neighbors so that we win the \u201cChristmas Decorating\u201d award. Leaving those comparisons behind has been a relief for me as I have found simple beauty in our cozy, very lived-in home, with the tiny lights on a tiny tree and the d\u00e9cor of yester-years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not needing to compete is a win for me at Christmas. I mean — Mary, Joseph, and Jesus are our Christmas models. They had no extended family around to help Mary give birth. No baby shower. No matching pajamas. Mary was a pregnant teenager on a donkey with a husband who failed to make hotel reservations ahead of time. JOSEPH!! What were you thinking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And her baby? He was born into a total mess — and I am not talking about his genealogy that included prostitutes and murderers. I am talking about the \u201cno crib for a bed\u201d mess! And the smell of the animals? If it were me, I would have thought, \u201cReally, God? This is what I get for being obedient?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was far from perfect. And yet, it was God\u2019s perfect plan. I sometimes think that our here and now could use some not-so-perfect, but God\u2019s holy perfect times in our families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus were deemed \u201cThe Holy Family\u201d \u2013 not \u201cThe Perfect Family\u201d. God isn\u2019t looking for perfect families. What He desires are \u201choly families\u201d. What makes a family holy? Families that surrender to the will and purpose of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have learned that imperfection helps me discover the path that God calls me to when I meet Him at the cross. It is not the path that leads to the perfect life I want, but the path that leads to the holy life that I need. God makes no mistakes. He knows perfectly well what He is doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My prayer for all of us as we journey to Christmas Day AND the New year — is to stop trying to be the perfect family and make holiness our goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How? Praying for and with our family. Loving our family \u2013 mess and all. Because the mess is not only why Jesus was born but where He chose to be born. The mess is where we meet Jesus. I\u2019m good with that \u2013 how about you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s time for those picture-perfect Christmas photos of families in matching pajamas, along with the picture-perfect photos of our impressive Christmas d\u00e9cor. Suddenly the comparison doors swing wide open as we try to one-up our friends and neighbors so that we win the \u201cChristmas Decorating\u201d award. Leaving those comparisons behind has been a relief for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[600,9283,1210,1769,251,4174,4157,30910,1417,1392,267,25479,455,540,542,25477,16312,4128,30909,17249],"class_list":["post-21198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-baby-jesus","tag-baby-shower","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-day","tag-christmas-decor","tag-christmas-decorating","tag-cross","tag-facebook","tag-faith","tag-holy-families","tag-holy-family","tag-joseph","tag-mary","tag-matching-pajamas","tag-mess","tag-new-year","tag-no-crib-for-a-bed","tag-obedient"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21200,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21198\/revisions\/21200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}