Happiness Bursting Out the Seams For the Holiday Heart

“Happiness requires struggle. It grows from problems.

Joy doesn’t just sprout out of the ground like daisies and rainbows.

Real, serious life-long fulfillment and meaning have to be earned

through the choosing and managing of our struggles”

(Mark Manson)

Around this time of year, many of us experience the holiday heart. We start thinking about all the extraordinary things we thought we were destined to see but didn’t. We start to consider all the plays we made trying to win. And then the emotional turbulence begins when all the commercials and Christmas carols start playing on the radios making us aware that it really is Christmas.

• ·         We want to smile but our hearts are caught up in drama.
• ·         We try to stay consistently happy but suddenly, it seems as if all the troubles of the world have landed in the palm of our hands.
• ·         We try our best to become absorbed with the delights of Christmas, but the winds of depression hit us hard like the seasonal breezes that come with the winter solstice.

Cheer up!

They say that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year for a reason. Here is one thing to get excited about; Christmas falls on a Sunday this year. Aren’t you excited at least about the four-day weekend that you are about to have? 

The lights and ornaments that seem to be strung all around brings me joy. The scenery to me is so beautiful that I can’t help but to smile.  I also look forward to the inches of conversational daylight that I will be buried under when my family gathers for Christmas. And then I consider the fact that we will be moving on into a brand-new year and the grand idea of it for me is like being wrapped in romance.

Yeah, I said it! ROMANCE.

By romance I mean, the greatest love you will ever experience. If you believe that God is love than you know what I am talking about. God loved us so much that he kept us here another second, minute, hour, day, month and now we are about to embrace a brand-new year with brand new mercies and opportunities to pursue.

• ·         We can mope around with depression feeling defeated, or we can celebrate the fact that God loved us so much that he gave his only begotten son.
• ·         We can look back at all the projects we started yesterday that we did not complete or look out over the peaceful valley of tomorrow that is upon us and accept your experiences as part of the process. It’s almost like that half empty half full thing.

Christmas is a day filled with love and warmth. It is a day to walk happy in the sun. It is a

day to silence the doubts for a moment and let the beauty of the day Jesus was born sink in, and enjoy the blessings of celebrating him, knowing that there is a beautiful world waiting for you out there and that tomorrow is yours for the taking.  It is a day to “remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes” (Nehemiah 4:14b).

Remember that we are not on this journey alone. Love yourself as you are and where you are. It is so important in overcoming adversities. I encourage you to keep holding on, to faithfully move forward and to not let go of your promise. Indulge in God’s love. It is so free and so beautiful and so yours. It is deeper than the waters of a lake and more expansive than the earth. Your joy in his love is like fertile ground. There is success in knowing that God is bigger than all your problems. Not to mention that it is the most wonderful time of the year, so cheer up and enjoy it.

From my heart to yours,

Merry Christmas!

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That your holiday may be merry and bright and full of many, many blessings.