Your Christmas will not be perfect.
I would like you to go back and re-read that first sentence. After your read it again pause and really let it sink in.
No matter how hard you work from now until December 25th your Christmas will not be perfect.
Maybe your potatoes will be lumpy.
Maybe the gift you bought for your kid that you thought would be a hit ended up being a total flop.
Maybe the gift you were dropping hints about all month didn’t show up under the tree at all.
Maybe the family member that annoys you still annoyed you.
Maybe you can’t help but think about the person who is missing this Christmas.
Maybe a thousand other things big or small will come up between now and Christmas, all conspiring to make sure your Christmas isn’t perfect. And you know what? I am ok with that.
This is my fifth Christmas as a dad and I am finally beginning to feel freer about it. I can’t make Christmas morning perfect. But even the least perfect days can still be good, great even.
We put so much pressure on ourselves each year, and for what? We are competing with or against our childhood memories, and pictures on Pinterest. My memories of my childhood Christmas’s are great. They border on perfect. But they are my childhood memories. I didn’t ever register the stress of the day for the people around me. When I aim to re-create the perfect Christmas that I remember I will always fall short because I don’t see the day as a child anymore. I notice the lumps in the potatoes.
My kids will, for the most part, miss the minor mishaps of Christmas. They will forget what gifts were given to them by whom within days, if not hours. But like me, they will have great Christmas’ because of the feelings the day brings. The feelings of fun, family and togetherness.
It won’t be a perfect day, but it will be a great day.
Christopher Drew is the pastor at Sackville Baptist Church. He is the father for three and the husband of one. He is a self professed geek and gamer. Read more about family, faith, and geekery at http://ModernManOfTheCloth.com
