Wow. We are in December and already for many of us the busiest month of the year. It is a month of competing priorities. The kids seem to start each sentence with I want… our extended family are chasing us to catch up with us; the shops want us to spend; the boss wants us to get this done by Christmas; various community group Christmas break up parties; our friends want us over for tea. It is like all these things are screaming for attention and we only have 24 hours a day to fit it in.
Right up to Boxing Day our list of competing priorities is full and over flowing. Every waking moment has someone asking or wanting us to do something. All have good intentions and most of it we want to do. You feel so guilty saying no so you keep saying yes.
As a football coach the one thing I learnt early and that I try and reinforce to the kids is the need to keep the main thing the main thing. Not to get distracted by competing influences or voices.
This same principle our family executes at Christmas. I still have the same competing priorities as you but our family knows what the main thing is for us. It is the same main thing in the other 11 months. It doesn’t change at December. The value system we have keeps us sane throughout the whole year. We don’t compromise what is important to each other as a family.
That stops us from being ambushed by other people’s priorities. God calls me to love my wife and raise my kids to the best of my ability in a place they feel valued, nurtured and safe. That is my main thing and nothing will distract me from achieving it. So as priorities are thrown at me I decide what competes or what compliments my main thing in December. The competing ones get cast aside and the complimentary ones are accepted.
So this December my encouragement to you is relax and keeping doing your main thing. It may not be easy but it is extremely rewarding. I hope and pray you get the chance to embrace the beauty of the Christmas message that Jesus brought to this earth as a baby some thousand and a bit years ago.
From my family to you; Have a blessed Christmas and we pray that 2014 will be a wonderful year for you.
God bless,
Billy Diehm
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