The Secret to Surviving the Holidays
The Secret to Surviving the Holidays
How Gratitude Uncovers the Hope of Christmas
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: I’m super excited about two new ways that we can engage with each other, including a daily burst hope available in January! Please check out the details at the bottom of this post!
Are You Stressed Out About the Holidays?
The holidays are filled with all kinds of excitement, from time spent with family and friends, to food, the gifts, the Christmas programs, the shopping, the decorating, the cleaning… wait a minute, I’m exhausted just thinking about it all! Arrggggh!
Yes, the holidays are filled with all kinds of excitement. But they can also be one of the most stressful times of the year. Not only does it seem like everyone’s schedules get put on overdrive, but the expectations that everything has to be amazing and special can put an unnecessary burden on your shoulders. My secret to surviving the chaos of the holidays? Gratitude.
Gratitude is perhaps the most life-changing discipline you can choose, especially during the holidays. If you start to feel overwhelmed with um…challenging relatives or a to-do list that doesn’t seem possible to complete, stop for a moment and tell God what you’re thankful for.
Quick sidenote: I don’t ever want to say that you should use gratitude as a way to cover-up what you’re actually feeling. It’s super important to stay in-tune with what’s going on in your heart. But I find that it’s easy to get stuck in my head toooooo much—especially when there’s stuff that has to get done! Keeping a to-do list nearby helps me remember things when they pop into my head. Writing things down frees me up from having to think about all I have to remember! Yay!
3 Beautiful Ways Gratitude Will Change You
Seeing The Good: Gratitude gives us the chance to look for the good. So much of life seems to be focused on pointing out all the bad stuff happening. To be a force for good, for God, I want to look for all the good stuff surrounding me, point it out, and celebrate it.
Having Real Humility: Gratitude says the good things happening to me are not because of how great I am. I’ve been blessed in ways that have nothing to do with me or my actions. I can point to other people and God as the source. It keeps me off the throne of my life.
Life Becomes A Gift: With a grateful heart and mind, you will start to see more and more good things surrounding you. All of life starts to become a beautiful gift and your joy will continue to blossom. (fun sidetone: As you are grateful, you are setting yourself up for even more good stuff!)
This might be the very best time of year for you to explore being an even more grateful person. It’s something that will change your life, I promise—especially when you point to God with gratitude for all you have, and choose to look ahead with expectation-free hope to the good that is still yet to come.
God came to rescue us from the chaos of this world.
Let him rescue you from yours.
Two Really Cool New Ways We Can Engage
I’m super excited to share this news with you! The first is an announcement that I’m going to start offering my Live Hope Minute right here on Substack—which means you can subscribe (separately from this newsletter) and receive a daily burst of hope right in your inbox every weekday (with text and audio)! I love that you’ll be able to share anything that strikes you particularly well with your friends or family who might benefit from a little hope! Check it out and subscribe now right here!
The second is a brand new chat feature that lets us discuss interesting topics on the Substack mobile app! Here’s an example… (click on it to try it out!)
I look forward to hearing what you think about these new features! And as always, please comment or share anytime and anywhere you’d like. I find it very encouraging!
Christmas Music! I hope you’re finding lots of great Christmas music to listen to. In case you didn’t know, I’ve recorded three Christmas albums myself, which can be streamed on all the music services like Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, and YouTube. Just search “Mark Smeby” and they’ll pop up. The JOY album is my most recent and is a great starting point. “Emmanuel (You Are With Me)” is my most popular tune, and it can be heard in the perennial favorite Christmas movie “The Perfect Gift.”