Marissa Henley

Encouraging weary women to hope in Christ alone

How will you spend December?

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If you are anything like me, when someone asks, “How are you?” the answer is usually:  “Busy!”  There’s a lot on your plate.  Free time is almost non-existent.

And then December shows up.  You are expected to do all your normal stuff PLUS . . .

buy (and wrap and possibly ship) gifts for dozens of people,

produce a trendy photo card with all of your children looking well-dressed and filled with Christmas joy and mail it to everyone you’ve known since high school,

decorate your house and then try to keep your toddler from pulling the tree over on herself,

coordinate and execute a 3rd grade class Christmas party,

(what?  you didn’t sign up for homeroom mom this year?  good for you!  but this one is on my list.)

and bake fabulous goodies and deliver them to your neighbors while singing Christmas carols with your kids in three-part harmony.

We all know this list (plus the rest of the Christmas trappings) takes HOURS to complete.  Hours that you and I don’t have in our normal days, let alone the turbo-charged days of December.  And yet we are expected to do all this while maintaining some semblance of peace and joy.  We are celebrating the birth of our Savior, after all.

I have good news for you!  There is another way!  A few years ago, my sweet friend Karen introduced me to the idea of finishing all my Christmas preparations by December 1.  (Click on the link on the left and you can read more.)  Imagine a December with no shopping, no wrapping, no yelling at your kids to smile because if you don’t get this photo today you might as well send out valentines instead.  Imagine spending December preparing your heart to celebrate the birth of your Savior and making memories with your family.  (Last year, Karen also introduced me to a great way to spend the month of December:  Random Acts of Christmas Kindness.  But we’ll get to that later.)

How in the world can you finish all your Christmas preparations by December 1?  All you need is a head start and some planing.  I start by making a list of everything that I need to finish by Christmas:  shopping, wrapping, Christmas cards, decorating, baking, etc.  I list every step of the process and work backwards.  For example, in order to ship gifts to out-of-state relatives, I need to wrap gifts, buy wrapping paper, buy gifts, and ask relatives for their wish lists.  Then I plan out when I am going to do each of those things, working backwards to know when I need to star the first step:  asking for wish lists.  (My request is going out this weekend, by the way.)

I begin my checklist at the end of September, so don’t put this off!  But if you feel overwhelmed, just remember that anything you complete now will save you time in December.  This can be the year that you experience the joy of celebrating Christ’s birth rather than being weighed down by the burdens of the holiday season.

Click here to download my checklist and get started on your own.  When you’re snuggling under the Christmas tree, reading “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” to your kids, you’ll be so glad you did.

 

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Are You Ready?

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I thought I should check in with my Christmas-By-December-1 friends . . . how’s everybody doing?  We went on vacation for a week before Thanksgiving, so I’ve had to cut myself just a little slack this year.  I have a couple of loose ends to tie up, but for the most part, all my gifts are purchased and wrapped, and one has even been gifted.  (You know who you are, waffle girl.)  I’m tracking down a few more addresses, but the bulk of the cards are in the mail.  My house is decorated, which is extra special because my sweet friends decorated for me last year when I was receiving chemo–and that was so great of them, but this year unpacking all those boxes myself made me smile.  🙂  Plus, I made these red sparkly letters to put on my mantle (inspired by Pintrest), and I love them.

I have no Christmas cookies stocked in my freezer and no plans to do a ton of baking this year.  (Sorry, people, we went to Disney World instead.  It was worth it.  But you’re not getting little tins of baked goods from me this year.)  But my kids and I are three chapters into “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” and seeing Will’s reactions to hearing about the Herdmans for the first time makes me even happier than decorating my own house.

If you have made the effort to get most or all of your Christmas preparations finished, what are your plans for December?  I have made a list (thanks again, Pintrest) of all the things I’d like to do with my kids.  I made this frame look festive and wrote the list in dry erase marker on the glass:

Most of these things will probably happen in the week after school gets out.  But we’ve already started memorizing Luke 2, and we snuggled under blankets by the tree tonight to read about Imogene Herdman finding out what everyone weighed in the health office.

What are you all doing to make Christmas special this year?  After all, the purpose of getting our preparations done early isn’t to sit back feel prideful about it.  The purpose is to focus on the birth of Christ and celebrate with our families in a way that honors our Savior.  I’d love to hear your ideas!

P.S. For any of my blog readers who aren’t on facebook, I had my scans last week and got a great report.  Praise the Lord!

 

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Just 67 days until Christmas!

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I know, I know . . . you’re just trying to get through Halloween and Thanksgiving without having chest pains every time you walk into Hobby Lobby and are forced to think about how Christmas is almost upon you, with all it’s stress and busyness reminded about the upcoming celebration of our Savior’s birth and all it’s wonderful traditions and fun!

A couple of years ago, I discovered a new (to me) way of preparing for Christmas that has revolutionized my experience of Advent, the month of December, and the celebration of Christ’s birth.  I have started planning to finish all of my Christmas preparations–shopping, wrapping, mailing cards, etc.–by December 1.  I’ve found that it makes a huge difference in my energy level and enthusiasm by the time Christmas arrives if I’ve spent the weeks leading up to it enjoying Advent activities with my family rather than running myself ragged, fighting crowds at Target and wrapping gifts until midnight.

The key to this strategy is planning.  The way I plan is by making a long list of everything that needs to happen and then work backwards, scheduling it out and figuring out when I need to start each task.  For example, I can’t mail Christmas cards until I have a Christmas card.  I won’t have a Christmas card unless I order one.  I can’t order one unless we take a family photo.  I can’t take a family photo until everyone has color-coordinated outfits to wear.  (That’s just how I roll.)  So each of these tasks is on my checklist.  That way, I don’t get to the end of November, realize no one has anything to wear in a family photo for the Christmas card I want to mail out next week, and go running to the mall on Black Friday to try to find something.  (Nightmare!)

I apologize for not getting this post up sooner.  I started my preparations at the end of September.  But it’s not too late!  Every bit you get done ahead of December 1 will mean less stress for you in November.  Sit down right now and make your list!

To help you, click below for an example of my checklist to get you started.  Once you try it, you’ll never go back!

December 1 Checklist

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Prayer Binder: Confession

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For an introduction to my prayer binder, click here.  For the post on the Adoration section, click here.

For those of you who just came to this post hoping for a photo of the inside of the confession section, forget it!

Ah, good old confession.  It’s just about enough to make us want to throw that whole ACTS thing out the window, right?  But one thing I’ve been learning lately is that the Christian life is a life of ongoing repentance.  So this might be one of the most important aspects of prayer.  I think it’s important to remember that we not only need to actively confess the sin that we’re aware of, but also take time to be quiet, asking the Holy Spirit to prick our hearts and show us the sin we have been ignoring.

The confession section of my prayer binder is simple.  It is a page where I have listed patterns of sin that I struggle with the most often, such as materialism, pride, selfishness, lack of self-control, envy, discontentment, and anxiety.  I pray through the list, focusing on things I am currently struggling with the most, and then asking God to show me if there’s anything new I need to jot down.

At the top and bottom of my confession page, I have two very important reminders.  They are quotes from Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions (page 74).  At the top of the page, I have written:

“Thy blood is the blood of incarnate God, its worth infinite, its value beyond all thought.  Infinite must be the evil and guilt that demands such a price . . . “

At the bottom of the page, I have written:

” . . . yet thy compassions yearn over me, thy heart hastens to my rescue, thy love endured my curse, thy mercy bore my deserved stripes.”

I love these daily reminders of two very important truths.  First, that my sin is serious.  Christ’s blood is infinite in value.  And that was the price demanded by my worry, my pride, my selfishness, my discontentment.  These are not small issues.

Second, that Christ paid the price for my sin so that I can stand righteous before a Holy God.  God Himself worked in history to secure my rescue.  In light of the ways I rebel against His Word every day, this is truly amazing grace.

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