Christmas is coming and more than likely, you and I will stay with people we call… family. They may come to you or you may go to them. Either way, squeeze all of you together and issues like offense or impatience surface around the dinner table or Christmas tree. This is the stuff we do not share about on social media. But it exists.
I propose something to help you overcome the stress of being with family that does not involve chugging egg nog or wine. I care about you and your familial relationships. God cares about them too. And so, over the next four days, I will share a Proverb, straight from the Old Testament of the Bible on the blog with you. The posts will be ultra short as I know all of us are busy. I hope you will read the Proverb and memorize it as best you can.
So if when you find yourself fuming while passing the Christmas ham or rocking yourself in the bathroom on Christmas day, you have biblical Truth to lean on and repeat to yourself. God’s Word is powerful and calorie free. Can’t say the same about egg nog or chocolate can we? Just sayin’.
May these Proverbs help you in the midst of the not-so-perfect and unmerry moments with family members whenever they come to stay. Here is the first Proverb…
PROVERB 1: OFFENSE
Memorize it:
“A person’s wisdom yields patience;
it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.”
~Proverbs 19:11 NIV
Live it:
Politics. Religion. Whose sports team is better. A controversial social issue. A “hot button topic” is bound to come up during your Christmas family gathering. And when it does, things become tense. Or enter the good-hearted relative who “raised their kid in a different way.” Within seconds they morph into a Venus flytrap and gaze upon you and your child with “that look.” And snap! They share their well-meaning advice, making you breathe fire.
Reread Proverbs 19:11. It is to our glory, beauty or honor, to overlook offense. Yelling or debating wastes time and emotion. Honor God by listening with patience and grace. Love Venus flytraps anyway. Overlooking offense instead of indulging in it allows you to enjoy time with your family whenever they come to stay.
Merry Christmas to you and yours,
Before you go:
I would love to know your answer to one or both of these questions in the comment section below. What is one family Christmas tradition you enjoy? OR what is one word that describes your family? Our family could best be described as loud “spirited.” Yep, “spirited” is a great way to put it . 🙂
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Yaaaaaaaaaasssssssss!! Thank you for this truth!!
You are welcome! Glad to know your heart is encouraged.
We’re still working on the Tradition! The past few years of us living away from family, we hadn’t been able to “go home” for Christmas because of demanding basketball schedules for high school.
So, since we had to stay home, I wanted to do something special as a family….but nothing has formed. No one seems interested!! grrr!!
One word that describes my family…..chill
Oh bummer Kela 🙁 Living away is tough, and ages/seasons of life do make it hard to have/maintain traditions. I love that your family is “chill.” It would be interesting to get our two families together then lol. We would even each other out for sure!!! Thanks for your comments.
Healing would be our word. God is healing our famIly. I won’t be with them this Christmas and haven’t been in 8 years. Military life to now single mommy hood, makes for getting to see family hard.
Amen to healing Nicole. What a beautiful word full of promise and hope. My heart is sad that you will not get to see your family, I do understand the military part- as we spend many Holidays apart from my family too. I pray that you and the man cubs will have a FUN and peaceful Christmas. And fingers crossed that we will see some snow around here on Christmas Eve/day. Hugs my friend.
Our family can best be described as Recentering. We are recentering on Christ this year. Also, this is a much NEEDED article for me. Thank you. My father and might need to read this over and over, I think we might have a new code word…Provebs!!
Hillary Hock
Re-centering… I love that Hillary. And I think your new code word is pretty awesome too 🙂 There are many more Proverbs to chose from and you can check them out in different translations to see which speaks to your heart. So blessed to know this one is helping. Thanks for your comment!