I’m sitting in a café in the city having my lunch. I love this building. There are old, unfinished surfaces of timber and brick. The music is easy, and the wait staff are all shapes of hipster. I’m in the upstairs dining room with a view of the barista and street below. As I sit here, waiting for my lunch, a truck pulls up delivering boxes of new stock, ready for the busy Christmas retail rush.
As I watched the staff open the boxes and stock their shelves, it got me thinking…
How can I prepare my heart’s shopfront for Christmas?
The first thing they did when the new stock arrived was to clear off and clean out the old. All of the old packets of coffee were taken down, and the shelves cleaned of dust and clutter, ready for the new packages to be added.
What clutter and dust are in your heart? Cleaning is a perpetual task. It is not something that can be done only once, expecting it to stay clean forever (I wish!) Cleaning needs to be done and redone, regularly, because life gets dusty and we collect clutter continually. And it’s the same for our hearts. The dust of life collects and needs cleaning away.
The sting of regret, the memories of hurtful comments, disappointments and pain all leave a residue of dust in our hearts, and if we ignore these feelings and allow them to build up, they become sticky and difficult to budge. As we look forward to the joy of the Christmas season, take time to declutter and wipe down the shelves of your heart. Take God’s gift of forgiveness and clean out the hurt. Take your disappointments and regrets to the foot of the cross and allow His love to wash it away.
Once the shelves were clear of old stock and cleaned from dust, the most prominent position on the shelf was given to the most valuable stock. The space that is front and center, at eye level, without any obstruction. The stock that is most important that will bring in the most revenue is carefully placed in easy view.
What is the most valuable stock in your heart? What are the most important things that bring you the most joy? Make sure those things are the most prominent. Don’t hide them away or obstruct their view with cheap clutter, don’t put them on the bottom shelf where they will be forgotten or up high and out of reach. Make the most important things the most prominent, at eye level.
This can be challenging at Christmas, because our lives, and hearts, are full of clutter. There is the pressure to buy gifts and manage the expectations and the budget. Family relationships are put under pressure as people from all sides of the family come together for the festivities. There is the pressure of preparing special food, beautiful decorations, and upholding generations of family traditions. All of these things can bring a lot of joy, but they can also be very stressful and challenging. If there is pressure on the family budget, tricky family relationships, recent grief or illness, Christmas is hard.
Think about how you can keep the most valuable people in your life front and center this Christmas. Do you need to make some changes to some old traditions so that you can spend time with the people you love? Can you make time on a different day to catch up with extended family, have a Christmas dinner that is simple to prepare, and the children will love and keep your gift purchasing within a reasonable, and affordable, budget?
Once the shelves were attractively stocked, the excess was taken into storage, ready for restocking when the supplies get low. Having access to some surplus supplies is an important step. Don’t over-fill your shelf. Make sure there is something left over, safely stored and ready for when you need it because what is on display may not be enough.
I’m very good at over-committing myself, filling up every available moment. There are so many good things to do! Good things. But when the calendar is full, and something unexpected comes up, there is no capacity to be flexible. Unexpected expenses are very stressful when the family budget is already stretched to the limit. When there is extra capacity left in reserve, you can roll with the unplanned circumstances and enjoy all that the season offers.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. As we prepare, I pray that you will have time to clear out the dust from your heart, ready to enjoy the new blessings the season brings. I pray that you will be able to keep the most valuable things in your life in the most prominent position, and I pray that you will have energy in reserve, ready for the extra pressure the season brings.
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