The Gift of Joy: Dressing Your Heart for Christmas
Joy is yours this Advent season! Discover how to embrace joy, overcome overwhelm, and delight in your duties with a heart of worship and gratitude.
I don’t know about you, but the Advent and Christmas season is our family’s favorite time of the year. Despite the bitter cold temperatures, shorter days, and a few more sniffles than usual, December is a magical month. But it only happens with yours truly putting in a lot of effort! Truthfully, sometimes, I need an attitude check in this season of comfort and joy. Can you relate? Well, sister, read on because I want to encourage you toward worship the entire month!
Decide to clothe yourself with joy.
Inevitably, our December calendar fills up more than I’d prefer, but it’s all with enjoyable things. I’m not a night owl or an extreme extrovert, so all of the activity, fun though it may be, can wear me out. If I’m not careful, I end up like a cranky two-year-old who needs a nap (and a little discipline). At the beginning of the month, I resolve to clothe myself with joy to nip the temptation to sin by grumbling from the get-go.
I get to choose what kind of clothing I’ll wear, and I’m the one that dresses myself. The moment the irritation, grumbling heart, or anxiety comes out, it’s indicative that I decided to remove my joyful clothing at some point.
Throughout the New Testament, Paul often instructs his readers to “put on” righteousness and to “put off” fleshly, old man ways. He uses the imagery of dressing oneself in 1 Peter 5:5, and it powerfully drives home a reality we sometimes want to deny: we have a responsibility to obey the Lord. And one command he gives repeatedly is to rejoice. We don’t need to feel like rejoicing to obey! We obey, and the feelings will follow.
Be a blessing to your family, and decide to keep your joyful clothes on all month!
Do the next thing, prayerfully.
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by everything there is to do in December? Do you give in to that feeling? If I allow myself to indulge the feelings of overwhelm, I become paralyzed. Spinning my wheels, I’m like a car stuck in mud. I’m expending much mental and emotional effort, but I get nowhere.
Mr. Webster (of 1828) is one of my good friends, and he gives us a powerful definition of overwhelm: “To overspread or crush beneath something violent and weighty, that covers or encompasses the whole; as, to overwhelm with waves.”
Often (but not always), we get ourselves into situations where we feel overspread or crushed beneath all the duties or activities of life. It’s common in different seasons, and experiencing the feeling itself is not necessarily sinful, but how we respond to it matters.
The truth is giving in to those overwhelming feelings is sinful. When has it ever resulted in righteousness? At the heart of the one who feels overwhelmed is often pride. We’ve not humbly acknowledged our limits, we haven’t been prayerful about what to say yes or no to, or we balk at what the Lord has brought into our lives. We know best.
When the overwhelm begins to creep in, the Lord desires us to “Be still and know that [He] is God” (Ps. 37:7; Ps. 46:10). He even goes so far to tell us to “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand” (Phil. 4:5).
Dependence is what the Lord desires of us. So, the next time you begin to feel overwhelmed or notice yourself thinking about everything you must do, stop yourself. Set a two-minute timer, give those things to the Lord, and adore Him. Thank Him for the good work He’s given you to do, ask Him for help, and when the timer beeps, do the next thing.
Take delight in your duties.
One of my favorite things throughout December is to do Advent surprises for my kids. Just about every day, I surprise them with something. It might be a piece of chocolate, stickers, a hot chocolate bar, or a movie. Big or small, there’s always anticipation in the air. I don’t want to miss their delight in this season! One day, they’ll all be grown and will carry on traditions they grew up with. And so, I choose to delight in the work set before me.
Like the resolve to clothe myself with joy, I seek to take delight in my work. Whether it’s prepping another Advent surprise or doing the dishes for the 100th time, I aim to lay hold of delight, if you will. Because I resolved to put on joy at the beginning of the month, taking pleasure in the mundane or extra duties is easy as I remember my commitment. However, I often breathe a prayer for help because the temptation to abandon my resolve can loom at various times.
With the Advent season upon us, we have the opportunity to set a joyful tone in our home; may we be women who delight with dependence on the Lord in the duties He has put before us, setting an example for our children!
