Finding Peace through Advent

Have you noticed that we tend to fast forward through our holidays?  We try and fill our time with all of the great festivities and busy ourselves with shopping.  Christmas time is frequently anything but peaceful.

This week, as we lit our advent candle, we talked about peace.  Peace is often a struggle - I like fast paced living.  I like the rush of adventure.  I fret about things like "am I doing enough to teach my boys" and "what should I be doing to make my home a healthier, happier place".  While these are great things to consider - I sometimes forget to allow myself to experience the peace of God.

This month, as we celebrate advent, Randy and I have set out family activities that help us focus on the season of Christmas.  We have something every day that points us to the anticipation of the coming of Christ.  The change of our change of focus, the other concerns are less.

My lesson: When Christ is my focus, my problems fade.

How has advent changed your family life?

Overcoming the Nevers: Week 2

Continuing with my journey through the book Overcoming the Nevers - here is the question list for the week.


In order to overcome and experience true freedom, Teri Johnson suggests that we need to decide to let go of past hurts, regrets and pain. How have you done this in the past? Were you successful at moving on? Are there things you are still holding on to that keep you from enjoying true freedom?


I think that in the past, my main mode of "letting go" was just to shove things aside and pretend to forget about them for a while.  I would avoid my past and look toward the future, partly because I want to be forward moving, but also partly because I did not want to think about painful things.  I hope that makes sense.


Recently I've done a lot of work related to this.  Especially as I went through my Restoring the Foundations class, but I'm not done yet.  I recognize that in trying to avoid some of the difficult times, I've pushed aside a lot of people that I dearly love.  It's not that I don't want them to be a part of my life, I just want to live in the now.  I dearly miss those people and need to spend some time and serious effort restoring some relationships that I have let lapse.


If you are one of those people, I am sorry that I have been so bad at staying in touch.  I have not been a good friend to you for a year, or several years - depending on who you are.  Know that I still love you dearly and you are on my mind constantly.  We are unfortunately, in a place that we cannot travel much to see those people whom I love, but I need to work harder at keeping in touch, by email, phone, or otherwise.


I guess, in short - my answer is yes and no.  I have been effective at avoiding pains, but not at being free from them.  By avoiding my pains, I have alienated myself at times - all with good intentions, of course.  I've hurt other people in an effort to make myself feel better about life.


Through recent work, I have been freed from some of those hurts and pains.  I am continuing to work through others.  It amazes me sometimes to realize just how connected a particular pain can be to how the rest of my life functions.  I live in freedom, but continue to work toward COMPLETE freedom.  


Here's a little nugget about freedom that I wrote down during my class tonight.  I don't know if it's original, or something that I've heard elsewhere, but it totally pertains to this post, and to the work I am doing in my life.

Freedom in Christ

means

Freedom from Sin

and

Freedom to have

Abundant Life.